Demonic Requiem
by Cerino the Ultimate Ninja
Summary: What if Kushina Uzumaki survived childbirth, what if their was a mysterious new village present for the chunnin exams and who's side will they take, and who is the fourth member of Team 7 and what secrets does he hold. Naruto/femKyuubi later on OC/OC
1. Arrival

Hello and welcome to my second story. And to all of you who are reading my other fic let me just say that I ain't giving up on it. It's just that the idea for this story keeps on distracting me so I thought that if I begin writing this one I will be able to write the other one easier so please enjoy and read and review.

'**Thoughts'**

"**Speaking"**

"**Demon Speaking"**

'**Demon Thoughts'**

Demon's Requiem

Chapter 1: Arrival

**-Somewhere near Konoha-**

'_Almost there!_' A figure garbed in a black cloak (Again Organization XIII's cloak. Why do I use it all the time?!? Cause they are awesome.) Glancing back he saw that his partner who was wearing the same cloak as him and keeping pace with him, but he also saw that their pursuers were gaining on them.

Stopping in the middle of a clearing Cerino Delgada (seer-i-no, people always pronounce it seer-e-no, don't know why though. and just sound out the last name Del-ga-da. ALSO Cerino will be in almost all my fics cause I thought of him from the ground up.) held out a scroll to one Yugito Nii. "Take this it will allow you to get through the gate!" He shouted.

"What about you?!" She asked in surprise while taking the scroll from him.

"I'll be fine now just go!" He shouted as their pursuers busted through the treeline and made a bee-line for them.

"NO! I ain't going to leave you to fight them alone your exhausted." She shouted slipping into a taijutsu stance. Only to have an invisible force grab her and throw her back. But of course she landed on her feet like all cats.

"Just run!" He shouted while drawing his katana. "I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS FODDER!!!

"Ok. But if you die I'm gonna spit on your grave!" Yugito shouted back then turning around and ran.

**-Konoha gates-**

After running about another 5 miles she came upon the great gates of Konoha. The two chunning at the gates stopped her. "Halt! What is your purpose in Konoha!" The guard on the left said tensing up getting ready for a fight.

Yugito realeved that she had finally made it put her hands on her knee's and it looked like she was about to keel over which didn't go unoticed by the guards. Finally gaining her breath she held the scroll out to the guards still unable to talk. The right one took it and read it only for his eye's go wide as dinner plates which caused the other guard the read it over his shoulder only to react the same way.

"O-o-k y-y-ou can pass." The first guard said giving the signal to open the gates.

"W-wait!" Yugito panted out between breaths. "My friend gave me that scroll! He should be passing through here in a few minute so please let him pass! He's wearing the same thing as me." She finished tugging at the coat to get the point across.

"Ok…do you need some help to the tower?" The second guard asked seeing her state. Her close were caked with dirt, grime ,and dried blood. Which meant that she had been traveling for awhile.

"No but my friend might he stayed back to fight of some missing-nin who were pursueing us!" She said. Both guards looked surprised but didn't comment on that they just let her pass throught the gate. Once through she immediately jumped up on a roof and took off toward the Hokage tower at the fasted pace she could muster.

About ten minutes later the guards were discussing what had just occurred when they saw a black blur heading staight for them. So immidiatly getting into defensive stances they waited expecting the figure to stop but he didn't when he was bearing down on them he leapt up and disappeared over the walls of Konoha.

After a good two minutes of staring at the wall were the figure disappeared Guard One looks at Guard Two. "Should we go after him?"

Guard Two looks at Guard One. "And get our asses handed to us! No thanks!"

Guards One and Two look back up at the wall and in unision. "Daaaaaammmmnnnn."

**-back with Cerino-**

Cerino continued to dash off toward the Hokage tower jumping from roof to roof two at a time. As he passed through the Market District of Konoha he couldn't help but feel the urge to stop and have a decent meal but he quickly surpressed the urge. As he landed on the building just before a ramen stand called Ichiraku Ramen his right leg seized up and gave out from under him and with shout of "SHIT!" he plummeted into the street in front of the stand.

**-Ichiraku Ramen-**

Naruto Namikaze and Kushina Namikaze were at Ichiraku ramen to celebrate Naruto's graduation from the Ninja Academy by having ramen at their favorite stand. It was their favorite cause they always served them fairly there not over pricing them like most stands and stores even though they knew of Naruto's 'tenant'.

"Congradulations on your graduation Naruto! Say how bout we make the first round on us!" Teuchi Ichiraku owner of the stand said with a grin.

"Really old man! Hell yeah!" Naruto Namikaze shouted while adusting his leaf headband which was currently on his forehead only to be slapped upside the head by none other then his mother Kushina Namikaze.

"Watch your mouth Naruto!" She said but she couldn't help but smile as Ayame Teuchi's daughter and waitress of their shop brought their orders.

Naruto wore the very same outfit as his father did including the white cloak the only difference was the black cargo pants with red around the pockets and the boots other than that he was the spitting image of his father he was just a little shorter than his mother. Kushina wore a standard jounin outfit much like Kakashi's but made for a woman. They both had katana's on their backs seeing how Kushina began to teach Naruto how to fight with one at a young age.

They were about to start eating when there was a shout of "SHIT!" from above them making them both jump from their seats taking their respectful stance as there was a crash behind them accompanied by a scream from some random civilians as they gatherered around the source. Kushina deciding to chech it out began to push her through the crowd Naruto right behind her the crownd parted for them seeing as they were ninja.

When she finally got to the center she found heself to the left of a young man about the same age as Naruto picking himself up from the dirt his eyes closed as he shook himself to shake off the landing. He had snow white hair which would no doubt reflect the sunlight if their wasen't all the dirt and blood in it. His face was angular, sharp, and attractive with high cheek-bones and no baby fat, but it also looked feral like a canine of sorts. But one of the most noticable things about it was the three claw like scars running diagonaly across it beging at the right half of his forehead. One went right between his eyes and across his nose ending at the left corner of his lip(think of squalls/leons scar). The other two went over each of his eye's the lower one ended just above the right corner his lip and the other ended just beside the left corner of his lips.

The rest of his body was shrouded by a black cloak, but the cloak couldn't hide all the muscle under it confirming Kushina's belief that he was a ninja. He also had a katana on his back. The only way Kushina could describe it was that it was beautiful. It had an elegant black sheath which was designed with white orchids covered with blood spatters all over it there were also many seals etched into the wood around the flowers. The handle was just as beautiful. The cross-guard was in the shape of a wolfs tail wrapped around the blade and the hilt was a golden color while wrapped in a black cloth and at the end of the hilt was the head a head howling wolf the same golden color as the hilt with rubies for the eyes.

Pushing himself up to kneel on one knee. Then Kushina got worried his whole body was literally caked with dirt, grime, and blood both fresh and dried. The majority of his face was coated with fresh blood and his hair also had a large amount of the crimson liquid in it and as the light shone through his hair it made it shone like a shrouded fire due to the dirt. The figure looked up his face contorted into a soundless snarl Revealing white teeth, but his canines were sharper then they should of once again reminding Kushina of a dog. He then finally opening his eye's. The crowd gasped and took a few steps back Kushina and Naruto were rooted to the spot. His eye's were the same color as the blood coating his face, but if left at that it would have been ok cause one of Kushina's friends had red eye's.(guess who.) But no these eye's were red and slitted like a demons. The figure finally made it to his feet and Kushina saw that he was a good inch or so taller than her and before Kushina could say anything he had lept of onto a nearby rooftop and continued on his way to the Hokage Tower.

After recovering from the shock Naruto asked his mother. "Should we go after him?"

"No I think it would be better if we just stay here." Kushina said turning back to the stand as the crowd dispersed muttering about 'great now we have two demons on our hands' earning a glare from Kushina. Soon She, Naruto, Ayame, and Teuchi were laughing again enjoying their celebration. Although Kushina couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

**-at the Hokage tower-**

Cerino arrived at the Hokage tower and deciding to take the quicker way so he ran up the side of it and jumped throught the window to the Hokage's room only to find Yugito their finishing her tale of what had happened after Cerino saved her in Kumo. Hearing him jump through the window Yugito instantly rushed over to him and slapped him over the head before hugging him. "Ow what was that for." Cerino said while rubbing his head.

"That was for going off and trying to be a hero bro." Yugito said with a huff.

"Well I'm sorry sis but they would of caught up to us before we made the gate and the last thing we needed was a fight at the very gates of the city!' Cerino said with a serious expression.

Yugito was about to make a retort but Sarutobi decided the put his two cents in. "SILENCE YOU TWO! Now Cerino would you please tell me what caused you to run half way across the elemental nations and then all the way back across it in under 1 week?"

"Alright, alright just let me sit down very quick." Cerino said flopping himself down in a nearby chair. "Well it began…

**-two hours later-**

Sarutobi had long ago brought out his pipe and began smoking with a troubled look on his face. "Weelll this is indeed troubling news. And are you sure you want to go along with your current plan cause I'm sure someone of your talents could be of more use else ware." He said glancing at Cerino.

"No this is the best course of action I can take. If I intend to stop Orochimaru and my brother I must catch them in the act, and I will be able to protect both of the targets. They will never expect it. But the Organization has split up but they will all be at the exams. And too bad for my brother that before we were forced to leave I was able to empty the clans libraries, vault, and the armories so he is shit out of luck" Cerino said with a shit-eating grin. "Although…you could put Yugito in ANBU so we will have eye's and ears on both fronts."

"Hmm." Sarutobi said while closing his eyes to think. "Yes this is the best course of action. Yugito you will begin your ANBU duties in one week." Sarutobi said while finishing up a scroll he was writing out. "And Cerino the genin exams where today but I will give you special leave. You may join them next week when they are divided into teams." He said while handing him the finished scroll.

"Oh I almost forgot here is some missing-nin who are in your bingo book this should get me a hefty amount of money. And sorry about their condition but I wanted to travel hehe 'light'." Cerino said with a grin on his face and a malicious glint in his eye as he placed a scroll on his desk.

"Alright Sarutobi and thanks I know the plans a long shot but its our only option." he said while exiting the room with Yugito following him.

"Cerino!" Sarutobi called glancing up from the scroll just as he was about to leave. "Is there anything we could do?"

"Just get ready for the exams, but leave my brother to me and the Organization." He said as he left.

At that moment a group of ANBU lept throw the window then saluting the Hokage and the leader said. "Lord Hokage we have just discovered what looks like a battlefield about 5 miles from the gate. Most of the bodies are headless and the others we have identified as missing-nin between chunnin and jounin level from the other elemental nations. Should we begin to look for others?"

The ANBU noticed that Sarutobi's eyes were on a scroll on his desk and his right eye twitching. 'travel light my ass.' He thought. then getting back to the problem at hand he said. "There is no need for concern. Some of our allies waylaid them in-route. Oh and captian…could you take this scroll to the Missing-Nin Department of the tower for processing." Earning odd glances from the ANBU. "And Neko." Sarutobi continued causing an ANBU in a cat mask to stand at attention. "Bring me Ibiki." Sarutobi finished leaning back in his chair while re-filling his pipe.

**-1 week later-**

During the week that Yugito and Cerino had to get settled in they spent it as wisely and as luxuriously as they could. They spent the first night in a hotel seeing as they were both too exhausted to look for a decent house. The day after they woke up actually feeling clean and slightly refreshed seeing as they both took shower the night before. Cerino was also able to purchase a clan house the following day much to Yugito's enjoyment. The rest of the time he had Cerino spent organizing his items throughout the house, putting together the music room, training room, the library, and the dojo. Yugito spent her time helping him and going out into town buying assorted items and the like.

Yugito started her ANBU duties yesterday. Cerino was at the moment walking towards the ninja academy adjusting his newly acquired leaf headband which was currently on his right bicep. As he walked through the town many people cast puzzled glances and the occasionally a brave yet foolish villager would chance a glare only to nearly piss their pants as his red slitted eye's would return the favor with added killer intent. 'reminds me of my own village before I made chuunin.' Cerino thought as he finally made it to the academy.

**-Konoha Ninja Academy-**

Kushina stood infront of the class full of genin hopefuls along with the other jounin sensie's Kakashi Hatake, Kurenia Yuuhi, Asuma Sarutobi, and a few other jounin she didn't know. At the very back of the class room was Naruto sitting next to his two best friends Hinata Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka. Kiba and Naruto became best friends when they first met as babies when Kushina and Tsume Inuzuka had arranged a play date for them seeing as they were best friends just like their children. Naruto met Hinata when he first began the academy when she was still timid and shy. But he soon helped her out of that shell and revealed to the world the smart, beautiful and confident Hinata that hid within.(Naruto will be with Kyuubi. Hinata will be like a sister to Naruto. If you want me to add Hinata/Kiba into the mix of relations just say so in your reviews.)

Near the front was the ever brooding Sasuke Uchiha(FYI-I will probly be bashing on Sasuke and Sakura in almost all my stories so there's a warning) surrounded by his ever present fan-club with it's two ring leaders seated on either side of him Sakura Haruno, and Ino Yamanaka (I won't be bashing on Ino that much.) The class was currently quiet and staring at their teacher Umino Iruka but they would still steal glances at the jounin making them chuckle.

"Well let me just say that I am proud of each and every one of you and that I hope you will all grow up into strong ninja." Iruka said with a smile. Kushina liked Iruka the most out of all the teachers cause he actually saw Naruto as Naruto and not the Kyuubi. "Now I will assign each of you into a team and you will leave with your jounin sensei AFTER I have called all of the teams. Now team one will…" He began only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. "Now who could that be? COME IN!" He called"

The door opened and Kushina and Naruto were staring and the very same person who fell into the street a week previous. Though he had changed he looked like he had actually had a few square meals seeing as he was leaner and had gotten off all the dirt and blood and as Kushina had guessed the sunlight filtering through the window did reflect of his hair which was all pulled back so it would cascade down the back of his head and easily reached his shoulders(think Jak's hair from Jak II only white and doesn't need a headband or googles to hold it in place)and he still had the same sword straped to his back. He also had a leaf headband tied around his right bicept. The jounins noted that with eack footstep there was a dull ca-thunk which by looking down confirmed that he was wearing heavy combat boots which were of course black. A strange choice for a ninja who usually wore light shoes or ninja sandals for stealth.

"**He feels familiar." **A certain vixen said from from her place inside Naruto's head.

Naruto had first established contace with Kyuubi at the age of seven when a group of drunken villagesrs stumbled upon him on one of the few occasions when he was alone (I am pretty sure you can guess what happened.) Kushina had never forgiven herself for that incident and had never left him unocappaineid again until he could properly defend himself. Apparently a man by the name of Orochimaru tried to harness her power for own need but once he realised that he couldn't he placed a powerful genjutsu over her making her go into a bloodthirsty rage, and you know the rest. Since then they had grown into close friends and just resently did they get into a boyfriend girlfried relationship at his mothers blessing of course. 'What you mean you've seen him before. surely he couldn't be much older than me' Naruto asked back.

"**No. But that's the strange thing I haven't seen him in all my life but his chakra seems familiar I just can't shake this feeling. All I can tell you is to keep an eye on him. Although I feel like he is an ally that dosen't mean you should let your guard down."** Kyuubi finished as she tried to figure out where she had felt this chakra before.

Iruka looked just a curious as he walked toward him so he decided to greet him. "Hello. Can I help you?" Iruka asked when he stood right in front of him. His only response was for the visitor to hold out a scroll for Iruka revealing that he had black cloth gloves on his hands. A stoic expression on his face the whole time.

Iruka took the scroll and read it then he got a shocked expression on his face as he glanced back at the visitor. He cleared his throat and said. "Well this is surprising but I would like to introduce you to Cerino Delgada who will be joining you as a genin." This instently caused an uproar from most of the class. But Sakura's argument rose up above the rest and had many of them picking at their ears but they agreed.

"WHHAAAT YOUR SAYING THAT WE WORKED OUR ASSES OFF TO GET HERE AND HE!" At this she pointed an accusing finger at Cerino who just stared at her emotionlessly. "CAN JUST WALTZ IN HERE AND NOT EVEN HAVE TO TAKE THE EXAMS!!!"

"Well I'm sorry if this displeases you Sakura but if you got a complaint your going to have to take it up with the Hokage!" Iruka said holding up the scroll revealing the Hokages seal placed firmly at the bottom for everyone to see. That shut everybody up…in the ninja world no honorable ninja goes against the word of their Kage. Well almost no ninja.

"Still he should still take the exams for all we know he could be a civilian who couldn't pull off a single jutsu." Sasuke said in an arogent manner.

Iruka was about to yell at him using his pattened 'Big Head Jutsu' only to be stopped by Cerino who said. "It's ok Iruka if they want to see what I can do then so be it. What was the ninjutsu portion of the exams on since there isn't time to take the taijutsu portion of it and I doubt Sasuke here would want to be the practice dummy for my kunia." While rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Kushina couldn't help to yet again be reminded a canine of sorts by his voice. 'Or a Inuzuka.' She thought.

Sasuke was fuming at the insult and Sakura was about to yell/screech at him only to be shut up by a glare from Iruka. A few rows back Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata were all barely holding in snickers.

"Alright and I'm sorry about this but if you want to do this the ninjutsu exam was they had to make at least 3 clones, Henge into me, and then they had the to use the Shunshin." Iruka said after he had deflated.

"Keh to easy." Cerino said then without hand signs or the puff of smoke he created 10 clones who then Henged into each of the jounin and one for some reason transformed into Sasuke. Cerino then with a flick of the wrist launched a kunia at the clone of Sasuke right between his eyes who seemed to faze out only to be replaced by Cerino who caught the kunia between his index and middle finger. Putting the kunia back he snapped his fingers thus dispelling the clones…everyone was speechless. Not only did he create 10 clones which was well beyond the average standard of the academy he did all those jutsu without handsigns which required at least jounin level chakra control.

Cerino glanced around with a grin as if drinking in their incredulous expressions. "Any questions?" He said with obvious mirth.

Sasuke was furious. How did he a commoner (or so he thinks) not only surpass him in all areas. Who taught him, what kind of shortcut to power did he use. "H-how did you do that?" Sasuke stammered still caught between shock and fury.

"That is for me to know and you to bloody die trying to find out." Cerino said dismissivly.

"You will tell me how you did that!" Sasuke retorted angrily.

"No I won't, and trust me you won't be able to copy it with that pathetic excuse for a blood line." Cerino said cooly back as he glanced to Iruka. "Let me just tell you personally that I'm sorry for the mess this will make with the team match-ups but the Hokage insisted."

Iruka was about to respond when he was cut short by Sasuke. "Like you know anything about the all-mighty Sharingan!" Cerino turned his slitted gaze towards Sasuke making him flinch.

Cerino let out a bark-like laugh that sent chills up the genin hopefulls spines. "Oh trust me on this Sasuke. I know even more than you. Heh trust me." Then for a brief almost unnoticiable second Cerino's eye's flashed golden before returning to normal. The genin chalked it up to a trick of the light but the jounin knew what they saw.

Iruka saw that Sasuke was about to make a retort but decided to end this verbal spar prematurely. "WILL YOU SHUT-UP!" Iruka yelled again using his big head jutsu. "Cerino will you please take a seat as I assign the teams." Iruka said calming himself down.

"Sorry Iruka." Cerino said as he proceeded to take the only empty seat beside Kiba.

"Nice job putting Sasuke in his place." Kiba muttered to Cerino once Iruka started calling of teams.

"Yeah well someone had to put the arrogant Uchiha in his place." Cerino muttered back.

"Yeah. I'm Kiba, Kiba Inuzuka and this is Akamaru." Kiba said after pointing to the small dog on his head then offering his hand which Cerino shook then patted Akamaru on the head as a greating. "That's Naruto Namikaze and Hinata Hyuuga." Kiba contiued pointing them both out and Cerino shook both of their hands. They heard that Team 3's sensie would be Asuma Sarutobi right after that.

"Team 7 is Naruto Namikaze, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga," At this the three friends began to party only to be interrupted by Iruka who continued. "And Cerino Delgada. Your jounin-sensei will be Kushina Namikaze" At that all four of them looked at Cerino who just shrugged.

"WAIT A MINUTE WHY DO THEY GET A FOURTH PERSON AND WHILE WE GET ONLY THREE!!!" Screeched a certain banshee.

"Cause there isn't enough students to make another squad so we simply made a four man cell to even things out." Iruka answered simply and continued on with. "Team 8 will be Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your jounin-sensei will be Kakashi Hatake" At that everyone was nearly deafened by the fan-girlish squell Sakura let out and for once Shino actually showed emotion as a thunder cloud appeared over him and he looked like he was about to cry.

"Team 9 is still in rotation and Team 10 will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikimaru Nara, and Chouji Akamichi. Your jounin-sensei will be Kurenia Yuuhi."

"Well let me just say to you again that it was an honor to teach each and every one of you and I hope you all grow up to be astounding ninja." He then walked out of the room after flashing Naruto and Kushina a grin.

As everyone began to split up into their respectful Teams Team 7 stood infornt of Kushina waiting for orders. "Lets take a walk shall we?" She asked and as they nodded she walked out of the room and out of the academy. Kiba and Hinata were as comfortable around Kushina as they were around Naruto but they weren't sure about Cerino they had just met him today and they were worried that would throw off their teamwork seeing as they didn't know any of his abilities.

While they were walking Team 7 noticed that both Naruto and Cerino were getting about the same amount of glares the only difference was that while Naruto just brushed it off Cerino would return each and every glare with one of his own along with letting out a small amount of killer intent thus causing the civilian in question to nearly piss their pants. 'Must be his eye's.' The rest of Team 7 thought as once again a villager turned around and ran the opposite way with a rather noticablly darker spot in their pants.

'They treat him just as bad as they do Naruto.' Hinata and Kiba thought. They had first learned about Naruto's tenant/girlfriend at the beginning of the school year when he decided to tell them. They would never forget how shocked his face was when they said that they didn't think any different of him thus strengthening their bond.

Once they made it to Training Ground 7 Kushina turned around and said. "I know it really ain't necisary but anyway tell us your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. I will go first as an example. My name is Kushina Namikaze, I like my son here ,training, and learning new things. My dislikes are arogant people who think their better than everybody else and fan-girls for they give us real konouchi a bad name" She said with a smirk toward Hinata. "My hobbies are training, reading, cooking and other leasurly activities. My dream for the future is to see all of your dreams come to pass." She said with a smile. "Your next Naruto."

"Ok. My name is Naruto Namikaze, my likes are my mom Kiba and Hinata and Akamaru here and leaning new jutsu's and moves. My dislikes are people who can't see underneath the underneath and smug pricks. My hobbies are training, and learning new styles and jutsu, my dream for the future is to become a great of a Hokage as my father Minato Namikaze the Fourth Hokage." He finished earning a glare from his mother at the prick part.

"Your turn Hinata." Kushina said turning to her.

"My name is Hinata Hyuuga, I like my little sister and my father, my dislikes are people who put down others for their mistake, my hobbies are pressing flowers and reading romance novels, my dreams for the future are to become an honorable clan head and demolish the branch house uniting the Hyuuga household then to have a family." She finished. Naruto had really done a good job at helping her come out of her shell and Hiashi seeing that Naruto's method of encouraging her and helping her was working and soon picked up on it and soon Hinata was able to go on par with Neji her cousin. Her father couldn't be happier.

"Kiba your up" Kushina said with a smirk.

"Alright! My name is Kiba Inuzuka and this is Akamaru my partner and friend. I like training with Akamaru and my mother and sister. My dislikes are Sasuke and people who hurt dogs for no reason. My hobbies are training, exercising and playing with Akamaru, my dreams for the future is to become a pack leader or in other words clan head and to raise a family." Kiba finished with a smile.

"And finally you Cerino I dare say that we now the least about you." Kushina said with a smile.

"My name is Cerino Delgada, my likes are practicing kenjutsu, learning new things and meeting new people and my family." He said began." My dislikes are people who judge a book by it's cover and people who always takes the easy was out, my hobbies are playing assorted musical instraments, reading books, inventing and forging new weapons, and meditating. My dreams for the future is to return to my old home and to live a better life." He finished.

"Ok now that we now each other a little better meet me back at this spot at 6:00 a.m. SHARP if you are late…well lets just say you won't like it." She finished with a sadistic grin. "We are going to take the REAL genin exams at that time."

"WAIT! What do you mea the REAL genin exams I thought we took those last week." Kiba said looking dumbfounded.

"That was just a test to weed out the weak from the strong. Now we are going to decide if you are ready to really become ninja." Kushina said with a smirk.

"Alright now everybody head home and get a good nights sleep trust me you'll need it. Come on Naruto." She finished gesturing for Naruto to follow her home. "Oh and Cerino!" She shouted over her shoulder. "Next time try not to terrorize the villagers!"

**-later that night-**

Sarutobi was just wrapping up his daily paperwork when there was a knock on the door. "Come in." He said even though he already knew who it was from their chakra signature he had expected this. And as expected in walked Kushina.

"Hey Sarutobi you mind if I ask you a few questions?" She asked never taking her eyes off him to make sure he wasn't lying.

"Questions? Well I guess I will answer them to the best of my abilities." Sarutobi answered while taking out his pipe.

"Alright to start things off I would like to know who Cerino Delgada is?" She asked narrowing her eyes and getting serious.

Sarutobi sighed before standing up and walking to the window looking out on Konoha which was now bathed in moonlight. "Cerino is one of the most gifted and talented ninja I have seen since your son and his father." He said after a minute.

"That doesn't answer my question. I mean like, where he came from, how he got here, is he a friend or foe, and why you let him into the genin teams." Kushina said with a glare. Ever since she saw him again at the academy the feeling that she got back at Ichiraku had just been growing.

Sarutobi sighed then turning to face he said in a sad voice. "I am sorry Kushina but I can't answer those questions for they aren't mine to answer. If you really want to know the answer then ask the person they concern directly."

"But WHY can't you answer them Sarutobi of all people I know you are the only one who can answer them other than Cerino." Kushina said getting slightly frustrated.

"The only thing I can tell you is that he means you, Naruto or any other citizen of Konoha any harm. In fact he has saved countless lives with the information he gave me upon arrival. Which he gathered at great personal risk and not to mention all the trouble he went through to get here I might add." Sarutobi said in a calm voice trying to assure the worried mother.

Kushina sighed then taking a few deep breaths she said. "Well since I'm obviously not going to get any more out of you I will be leaving now. Tell Konohamaru I said hi." She then took her leave.

Sarutobi was once again at his desk working on the last piece of paperwork thinking. 'Well I guess nothings change with you Cerino. You are always where all the action is.' Sarutobi smirked as he sighned the last paper. Standing up he walked out of his office and headed home to get some much needed sleep.

**-Training Ground 7-5:45 A.M.-**

Kushina had just arrived at the Trianing ground early in hopes to get everything in place. Naruto was back at their clan estate getting ready. It was until she walked out into the main clearing that realized she wasen't alone. Cerino was there also leaning against one of the posts with a small black book in his right hand much similar to a certain perverted masked jounin while his left tapped a tune on the post.

"Hello Kushina a little early don't you think." He said not even looking up from the book.

"Well I have to get some things set up and that's Kushina-sensei to you." She said with a smirk.

"I'll call you 'sensei' when you've taught me something but until then you are just Kushina." Cerino said closing the book after making sure he had the page memorized.

:What you reading?" Kushina asked trying to strike up conversation after a minute of silence while she was unpacking an alarm clock and two bells. Instead of responding Cerino just tossed her the book which she caught and glanced at the title. 'Ghosts: True Encounter with the World Beyond. By: Hans Holzer' "I didn't take you for the type to believe in ghosts Cerino." She said as she tossed the small book back. 'Well at least it ain't anything perverted' She thought.

"You never know. I haven't seen anything to prove they do exist or anything that says they don't. I find it ammusing. While we worry more about the next enemy they worry about finding the stranded souls of their dearly departed." Cerino replied with a half smirk and a chuckle.

Kushina thought about it for a moment before she to chuckled. "Guess I never looked at it like that but your right." She said with a smile.

Another silence elapsed between them only disturbed by the leaves rusling in the wind, the birds singing, and occasionaly Cerino turning a page of his book. "Say Cerino," Kushina said breaking the silence. "You know you never told us where you came from yesterday." She said making it sound like an inocent question. But in reality Kushina was trying to unravel some of Cerino's hidden secrets so she could detirmed who he really was. Last night she had been mulling over everything and it occurred to her that his name seemed somewhat familiar as if she had read or heard about him from somewhere but no matter how hard she tried she simply couldn't wrestle the piece of information out of her mind.

"A long way from here and I miss it dearly." Cerino said in an even voice still reading the book.

"Yeah but I mean where as in what nation." She said trying to keep any of the frustration she was feeling from leaking into her voice.

"Why does it concern you?" Cerino asked turning his slitted gaze to her.

Kushina couldn't believe it. He was DELIBERATLY avoiding the question just like Sarutobi, and if she couldn't get even that answer from him then she wasn't going to get anything else.

"It doesn't I was just curious." Kushina said with a sheepish smile trying to mask her growing frustration.

"Well I'm sorry but I'd rather not answer. No offence to you but I still don't trust everyone in this village." Cerino said calmly returning to his book.

Kushina was REALLY frustrated right now. Not only did he not answer her questions, but a strange thing was. She felt like she was talking to someone much older than the young-adult standing in front of her. The way he bobbed and weaved around her questions like a proffesional on par with Ibiki made he even more suspicious. But she couldn't force the answers out of him so she decided to leave it alone.

A few minutes of silence later Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata walked into the training field together. Once they wear all there Kushina decided to explain the exams.

"Ok now that we are all hear I will explain what you have to do." Kushina said wearing a sadistic grin the whole time. "Your objective is two get these two bells from me before 10:00 a.m.. We will be beginning at 6:10 so do take this time to ask questions." Kushina said drawing two bells out of her pocket. After a second our two staring Hinata raised her hand.

Yes Hinata? Although this ain't the academy anymore so you don't have to raise your hand." Kushina said with a fox-smile much like Naruto's.

"There's only two bells and there is thr-I mean four of us." She said catching herself near the end.

"Very perceptive of you Hinata. Yes there is two bells. That means that while two of you will be staying and two of you will be going back to the academy." Kushina said sobering up somewhat.

"But that's insane. I've never heard of a two man cell I mean yeah I've heard of four man cells every now and then but ain't two a little risky." Naruto said narrowing his eyes.

"That cause there ain't any." Kushina began. "We take the teams that passed and combine them with the other teams that passed to even it up the best we can. Now is there anymore questions cause it is about time for use to begin." Kushina said looking at the clock seeing that it read 6:08.

During this whole time Cerino had his head slumped rubbing the bridge of his nose and grinning while shaking his head. 'I can't believe it. This is the same exam my own genin sensei gave me only a little different.' He thought looking up. 'I guess even though my village and Konoha are over half the continent away from each other the concept here is the same as their!'

Kushina seeing the grin decided to say something. "Is there something you like to say Cerino?"

"Oh nothin." He said still smiling.

"Ok then it's about time to begin, and remember come at me with the intent to kill or else you won't pass." She said. After each of them nodded she raised her arm and yelled. "GO!" Throwing her arm down launching a kunia at their feet making them scatter…well almost all of them.

Cerino just stood their for a good second or two later memorizing the page in his book before closing it and walking off towards the forest in a seemingly random direction.

"You're an odd one aren't you?" Kushina said sweat dropping a little.

"Yeah. Well I never did like following the crowd." Cerino said with a lazy wave over his shoulder.

Kushina continued to watch him as he walked into the woods, but the moment she lost sight of him his chakra signature vanished as if he wasn't even there. Kushina shivered involuntarily. 'I'm going to have to watch out for him.'

**-somewhere deeper in the forest-**

Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba decided to meet up and talk this over. "Ok something is seriously wrong with this test I mean even though it could work there is no way you can get enough people to pass to make even teams so there has got to be another point to this test." Naruto said in his thinking pose.

"Yeah he's got a point there, and what about the sensei when their teams merge they would have to wait a whole year for another team to arrive or they could go back to active duty. But my mother said that it's a 'no backing out' gig once you've started so that out of the picture." Kiba put his two cents in.

"And how are three genin fresh out of the academy going to beat a highly trained jounin with years of experience? I know we have an advantage with Cerino with us which makes four but still. There has got to be a way for all four of to pass." Hinata said also in her thinking pose.

"There is a way." A voice behind them said making them all jump and whirl around only to see Cerino leaning against a tree. "Hinata was the closest of all. Take the third and fourth words out of the first sentence and think about think about the second one real hard. She touched on the subject but didn't realize it."

It was silent for a couple minutes as they all thought it over until Hinata gave a jolt as if shocked. "Three genin! The test ain't about getting a bell it's about working together to get them! I can't believe we didn't think of that! They all but drilled it into our heads in the academy" She said.

Kiba and Naruto stared at them for a few seconds then Naruto muttered. "Well I feel a little foolish."

"You said it!" Kiba said then glancing at Cerino he asked. "How did you know?"

"The genin exams at my old village were similar. They were designed to turn us against each other and to see if we can see as your village puts it 'underneath the underneath'." Cerino said blankly.

"Ok. 'whew' Man you really gave us a start…hey what's up with that Kiba. Some tracker you are you can't even cover our asses." Naruto said teasing Kiba.

Kiba flushed with anger and said. "It's not my fault he…how did you hide your scent?"

In answer Cerino lifted his arm up plucking a leaf from the tree he was leaning on and let it go only to drift away from them. "I circled around and came up from down wind. I guess that was your idea too. To head down wind so you could tell if Kushina was moving."

They all nodded before Kiba asked. "Wait! How did YOU!" He began pointing a finger at him. "Know that we were here?" That got mysterious looks from the other two present also.

Cerino sighed and began to rub the bridge of his nose. A habit of his it would appear. "Listen I got about two years of ninja experience on you so tracking down a group of genin fresh out of the academy. Heh no sweat." Cerino said shrugging.

"Oh…ok. WAIT A SECOND! TWO YEARS? YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT YOU HAVE BEEN A GENIN FOR TWO YEARS!" Naruto yelled frothing at the mouth by then.

But before he could continue Cerino lifted his hand to silence him. "I didn't say I was a genin for two years all I said was that I got two years ninja EXPERIENCE on you, and before you ask what ranks I achieved I will say this. 'You haven't earned my trust yet to divulge such information.' It's not that I don't trust you its just that the reason I'm here is because of someone else stabbing me and the back, and I don't intend to let that happen again."

They all gave him a strange look as he stared blankly ahead but he couldn't conceal the wrath burning in his demonic eyes so they decided to just let it be for now. "Ok so we know what the exams are now so we need a plan." Hinata said breaking the silence that had stretched for a good minute.

"She's right we need a plan!" Naruto said once again assuming his thinking pose.

"Don't worry I got one." Cerino said looking back at them with a half-smirk.

**-back with Kushina-**

'Now were could they be it's been a good two hours so one of them should be making a move by now.' She thought glancing at the clock then back at her surroundings.

It was then that she detected a poorly concealed chakra signature behind her. She waited a few seconds before she head light footsteps and the rustle of fabric. whirling around she came face to face with Naruto with his fist cocked back and ready to strike.

In one swift motion Kushina sweeped his legs out from under him and delivered a strong backhand to his face only for him to poof away in smoke thus shrouding her vision. 'Shadow clone.' She realized before she heard the sound of heavy boots behind her.

Turning around she saw Cerino 10 ft. away with a katana swung back ready to slice her head off. Quickly leaning back to dodge the strike she drew her own katana. Sparks flew as she blocked a slash aimed for her mid-section she then pushed him back and countered by twirling to build momentum and aimed a strike at his chest only for it to be evaded by Cerino leaning back, and retaliate with a sweep quick which she jumped over. But Cerino didn't stop spinning until he came all the way around sword bared ready to slice her in half which she unfortunately had no alternative but to block…unfortunate that when they met it sent her flying a good 15 ft. away.

'Damn he's strong!' Kushina thought wincing as her arms were shaking not anticipating such a strong blow from him.

Then she heard something directly behind her in the woods which she had been lured to. "Gatsuuga!" Turning around she came face to face with two little mini-tornadoes bearing down on her. Twisting as fast as she could she was able to evade both only getting a small tear in her left sleeve. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a white and orange blur and a glint of steel heading straight towards her. blocking the swing from Naruto she was forced to retreat and a black blur came in intent on slicing her arm off. Then the twin cyclones came back and forced her yet again to jump back. mid-flight she felt a slight tug at her belt and the jingle of bells.

Looking down she saw that the bells that had been fastened there were gone! Looking up she saw all four of her students smiling/smirking at her Hinata holding up two bells. "Well I must hand it to you guys had me on my toes. But who gets the bells?" She asked seeing if they really understood the test although she had no doubt in her mind that they did.

"No one. It's either we all pass our we all fail." Kiba said with a determined look.

"Well then I guess I have no choice but to…" Kushina said with a sad look making them nervous. "pass you!" She finished with a smirk. "But I must ask which one of you figured it out?" At that she got a mixed reaction. While Naruto, Kiba, And Hinata pointed at Cerino he pointed at Hinata.

Seeing their looks Cerino said one word. "Whaat?"

"Cerino you're the one who figured it out." Hinata said as they all lowered there arms.

"No that was all you. I already knew the answer. A lesson learned is more valuable then a lesson given. I simply gave you a clue since you had all touched on the subject of teamwork several times." Cerino responded with a shrug.

"Um…ok I'll leave it at that, but Cerino how did you know the answer already?" Kushina asked looking curious.

"The genin exams at my home village were similar. Only instead of bells it was a marble on a wooden post that we had to get while the jounin guarded to." Cerino said once again rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah and he also said that he had two years more ninja experience than us. Say…just how old are you Cerino?" Kiba asked but before Kushina could scold him for asking the question Cerino answered.

"14"(In my fic they become ninja at affore mentioned age.)

"Wait. You mean you became ninja at the age of 12? Is that even possible?" Naruto asked.

"The only reason I skipped the academy was because I already knew everything they would teach me there so I joined the graduates and was thus assigned my team." Cerino half answered half lied.

"Ok now that that is out of the way and since it is only 9 o'clock how bout we get some lunch. Any suggestions?" She asked already knowing where they were going.

"Ichiraku's!" Naruto shouted pumping a fist into the air.

**-end chapter-**

**Well all I got to say is that I am glad that you all reading 'Lucario' have been patient and that the next chapter for that one will probly be coming soon since while I was writing this one a lot of ideas popped up so stay tuned but J-I-K I ain't making any promises. Until next time.**

**Goodbye**


	2. Wave

**Hello and welcome to my second chapter of Demonic Requiem. I don't really got anything to say other than I do not own Naruto. The only thing I own is the jutsu's, characters, villages, est. And to Human Kitsune Hero you'll see as the story progresses. And again PLEASE review I like hearing you thoughts and/or complaints.**

"**Speaking**

'_**Thoughts**_**'**

"**Demon/Summon Speaking"**

'**Demon/Summon Thoughts'**

Demonic Requiem

**Chapter 2: Wave**

**-somewhere in a forest bordering Konoha-**

"Target is in sight at 15 meters." Naruto said through the walkie staring intently at their target of which they had been tracking for the past 30 min. (I'm given you one guess.)

"Target in sight at 17 meters." Kiba said through his end.

"Target in sight at 12 meters." Was Hinata's report.

"Target in sight at 4 ft." Was Cerino's call startling all of them. And sure enough there was the enigma himself lounging lazily on a tree branch just above the unsuspecting victim.

Kushina for the life of her couldn't figure him out. After passing the exam they all of course went for ramen at Ichiraku's where she learned that he had been a ninja 5 years prior to now. And that he had probably gotten past the rank of genin. Which was another question. Why had Sarutobi made him a genin. Why not a chunnin or jounin but the latter wasn't that likely.

"Ok it's a go! I repeat apprehend the target." Kushina said seeing that they were all in position.

There was a rustle of fabric as Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata moved in to capture the target. "Oh shit! Kiba it's heading to you!" Naruto shouted.

"A crap! It slipped past me that little-"

"I got it." Kiba began only to be interrupted by Cerino who appeared behind Kiba holding Tora by the scruff of her neck with his pointer and middle finger.

This again brought Kushina another memory.

**-flashback-**

"Sorry I'm late an old lady needed help carrying her groceries to her house." Came the ever present excuse for tardy of which no one believed and only one commented on.

"Yosh! That was very youthful of you Kakashi!" Said one Maito Gai

"You say something Gai?" Was the reply of the ever tardy Kakashi Hayate.

"Curse you and your hip attitude Kakashi!" Was the reply.

"Now that that's out of the way. WILL YOU BOTH SHUT-UP AND LETS GET ON WITH THE REPORTS!" Kushina Namikaze shouted.

"Yes. Let us be on the way with the genin exam reports now that Kakashi was kind enough to join us." Sarutobi said as the rest of the jounin's sweatdropped at Kakashi's and Gai's behavior. The ninja council was off to the side to listen to what potential the new batch of genin had.

"Team One fails." One jounin began.

"Team Two fails." Another jounin continued.

"Team Three fails." Asuma Sarutobi said.

"Team Four fails."

Team Five fails."

Team Six fails."

Team Seven passes." Kushina said with pride.

"Team Eight passes." Kakashi said surprising many. None had ever past his exams before! But what else could they expect from the Uchiha prodigy.

"Team Nine is still youthfully in circulation." Gai said proudly.

"Team Ten passes." Kurenai said.

"Ok will the passing teams sensei's please step forward and give us a skills analysis of your students." Sarutobi said scribbling down on a sheet of paper.

"I guess I will go first." Kakashi began. "The Uchiha is arrogant. He chose to take me head on while Sakura watched off to the side. It was Shino who figured out the true meaning of the bell test. The only reason they initially failed was because Sasuke wouldn't listen and continued to take me head on and the Haruno soon followed and continued to watch not even lifting a finger to help Sasuke. And after seizing a chance Shino sprung a trap that nearly took off one of my fingers. He was about to continue to help Sasuke until Sasuke struck him from behind effectively knocking him out."

"I am going to have to drill into Sasuke's head the possibility that he isn't the strongest thing in this city and he might need help at some points. Shino is well rounded in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu although he knows a few Genjutsu's also. Sakura will take the most work seeing as she barely has enough chakra to make five clones. Her Taijutsu skills are none existent along with her Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. I would have her pulled from the program completely if she wasn't book smart." Kakashi finished. Shino's father remained impassive and the Uchiha didn't have a council member yet seeing as that Sasuke was the only heir and would take the Uchiha seat when he came of age.

"I'll go next then." Kurenai began. "They all did very well being brought up together as children so they all worked together naturally although I'm going to try to get Ino over her stupid crush. She could be so much better if she would just get over Sasuke. Chouji's Taijutsu skill is off the grid and combined with Shikimaru's brains they could be a force to match the first Ino-Shika-Cho trio." She finished with a grin. The parent's of the aforementioned genin smiled with pride.

"And then theirs me." Kushina said. "They all past with flying colors. Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata left immediately and tried to figure out the exams. Cerino simply walked off and disappeared after I lost sight of him. Soon after they launched a carefully laid plan against me with Cerino, Naruto, and Kiba acting as distractions as they lead me toward where Hinata was hidden under a Genjutsu and soon after she got the bells."

"As for skills well. Naruto is well balanced in everything other than Genjutsu for he can dispel them but not create any other then the henge. Kiba is good in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu and coupled with Akamaru they can surely keep anyone on their toes. Hinata is good in stealth and tracking and light Taijutsu coupled with Kiba's enhanced senses we could make and excellent tracking or attack team with Hinata acting as backup and medic. And Cerino." At this she sighed. Tsume grinned wolfishly and Hiashi smiled warmly hearing about Hinata's success.

"Why didn't you tell me he has five years ninja experience?" This caught all of the ninja's present attention.

Sarutobi sighed. "Again it's not my place to tell you of his past for it is a dark and sad one. But yes he has been a Ninja since the age of 9 not 14. Now please continue."

"Ok well from what I see he seems to be more of a main tank than anything although he was able to track Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata down within 5 minutes without being detected so I'm not sure. But he seems slow but strong. I'm going to work on his speed the most to even him out. On another note his Kenjutsu skills are on par with Naruto's or maybe even mine for he was able to herd me toward the woods were Naruto and Kiba sprung the next stage of their trap." Kushina finished only for Sarutobi to chuckle at the slow part.

"What?"

"Apparently I need to explain the 'fine points' of his arrival. Other than his right leg seizing up and causing him to fall into the market district seeing as you know that. I won't disclose much but let me tell you that he can be fast in his own way. Did you know that he traveled from Kumogakure to Konoha in under 4 day's?" Shocking many for that was a feat they alone couldn't probably manage without keeling over dead upon arrival. "Let alone the previous 3 days of travel to Kumo. So let me say this. Don't worry about his speed. If anything leave his training to himself. He's always seemed to do better that way." Sarutobi finished with a smile.

"Ok then is that all?" Kushina said studying Sarutobi.

"No that is all. Dismissed." Was his reply.

**-end flashback-**

From that day on she hadn't learned anything else other than that he lived in a clan house not far from Tsume's. Although she remained vigilant to find out anything else.

Right now they were in the Hokage tower heading to the Hokage's office for another mission. Cerino holding the accursed cat in the same manner as before although a little away from his body to avoid further injury.

"Forgot how boring D ranked missions were. And hears to that I won't have to take them again after this." Cerino said with a grimace before he winced. Looking down they found that the cat had somehow got a hold of one of his fingers and was now biting it for all that is was worth.

Lifting it up to eye level Cerino glared at it with his slitted eyes effectively making it go stock still. "Now listen here fuzz ball. I don't like you and I would enjoy nothing more than to take some barbecue sauce to ya. So keep still before I follow through with the aforementioned plan." Meaningless to say the cat kept still

There was another thing Kushina found odd. Cerino seemed to be accustom to giving orders. Not that he ever tried to take over her job. No. He followed every order she gave him. But when he gave an order like he just did. It was with the voice of a commander. Someone who was used to leading men out to the battlefield.

**-flashback…again-**

About a week after Team 7 was formed Kushina visited the Inuzuka compound to visit her good friend and sister figure.

Answering the door Tsume grinned at her long time friend. "Well hello their stranger what can I do for you?" She teased.

"Yes I know, I know. I haven't been over in a while. I've just been busy training my Team and so on." Kushina answered embracing Tsume as they headed to the living room.

"So how has Kiba behaved during missions and training?" Tsume asked smiling as she brought out some sake.

"He's behaved. Although the D ranked missions are killing him. Where's Kuromaru?"

"I thought so. His father was the same way. And Kuromaru's out in the kennel. I think he has the hot's for one of the bitches their." Tsume replied grinning.

"Well it's about time. He really needs to settle down with a nice girl." Kushina replied.

"Yeah I know. So how has your Team been?"

"Well Naruto's the same. The D-ranks are driving him crazy. Hinata is dealing with it a little better than them although I can tell she is starting to get slightly frustrated." Kushina replied smiling.

"And what is this I hear about your fourth member. Cerino Delgada is his name I believe right?" Tsume asked looking puzzled.

The smile left Kushina's face. "He's…I don't know he doesn't really seem to mind them. Really he acts bored with them more than anything. Even when catching Tora!" Kushina said looking exasperated.

"Really. I also heard from Kiba that he's pretty good in an argument too. Something about 'putting Sasuke in his place' during the team selections." Tsume said also getting serious. "He also said that he smelled like wolves."

"Yeah he did get into an argument with Sasuke. And completely kept a level head the whole time. And when I questioned him the next day he simply evaded answering like a pro. Always being one step ahead. Always finding a way to back me into a corner" Kushina then went into detail of the argument and the previous event.

"Hm that is something. And if he's not lying about the whole Sharingan business then he probably has a bloodline of his own to have such records."

"Your right I think he does have a bloodline a doujutsu no less." Kushina said describing how his eyes 'seemed' to turn golden.

"Yep that does sound like a doujutsu. Although I've never heard of a doujutsu that turns the eye color golden so I'm stumped." Tsume replied deep in thought.

"Same here. I don't know about you but I think something big is about to go down and I think Cerino is somehow involved. He's obviously hiding something."

"I know but what can you do. Now onto a lighter note-" Tsume began and they made small talk the rest of the day hanging out like they did in the old days.

They were later joined by Hana Tsume's daughter and they soon filled her in on the Team and Cerino seeing as she was in ANBU.

"I'll see what I can dig up on him." She said with a smile.

**-flashback end-**

As they handed Tora over to it's rightful owner they enjoyed watching it be tortured by the Fire Daimos wife. "Ok other missions. We have mowing the local gardeners lawn. Cleaning up Konoha's river. Or you could-" Sarutobi was stopped by a kunai going between his middle and ring finger.

"Nonononono!" Cerino began in quick succession to stab the kunai in between his fingers never even nicking one. As he sped up him and Sarutobi staring at each other Sarutobi not even fazed by the kunai slowly increasing speed until it was a blur a further testament to Cerino's skill with a blade.

"Listen her old man. I am not going to waste my time on these meaningless errands that would be left to academy students where I come from." Cerino continued the kunai never slowing down only leaving more indents in the table. Finally the tempo was halted and Cerino stabbed the table the kunai once again between his middle and ring finger. "Or you are going to be missing something very dear to you!" He finished digging the kunai in deeper into the wood making Sarutobi sweat.

Kushina couldn't help but grin. '_How did he know that's where Sarutobi Keeps his Icha Icha Collection?_' Seeing Sarutobi glance at her she just shrugged still smirking.

"Th-Theres a C rank escort mission to Wave that you can have." Sarutobi said handing the scroll to Cerino who took it and tossed it over his shoulder to Kushina.

Ripping his kunai out of the desk making it groan in protest Cerino said in his best impression of a Russian mobster. "Pleasure do'in business wit ch'you."

"Wait!" Sarutobi said just as they were about to leave grins on their faces. "Since Teams 8 and 10 are having similar complaints I'm going to make this a joint mission so if you'll just wait a second." Sarutobi said pressing a button on his intercom. "Bring me Teams 8 and 10 please. Now all we need to do is wait for them." Sarutobi said with a sadistic grin towards Cerino.

Kushina watched the exchange with interest and Cerino launched the same kunai in the same spot making Sarutobi sweat again. '_It's like a contest between them._' She concluded.

Soon after Teams 10 and 8 entered and Sasuke was the first to speak. "Why are they hear!?" Pointing at the other two teams. Team 7 and Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kurenai waved at Shino who waved solemnly back.

"I have just issued a C ranked mission to Team 7 and I thought since you all have been complaining about D ranked missions I thought I would make this a joint-team mission." Sarutobi said.

"Oh and you think that the idiots couldn't handle it. I probably could handle the mission by myself." Sasuke said arrogantly making Sakura swoon.

Before Team 7 could say anything Sarutobi said. "Why would that be Sasuke from my records hear they nearly double in the amount of D-ranked missions your team has completed and Team 10 here have completed nearly as much. If anything I'm sending the other teams to watch over your team." Sarutobi said with a mischievous smile.

Sasuke fumed and was about to retort only for Kakashi to say. "We accept the joint mission with Team 7."

"So do we." Kurenai said. With encouragement from her squad.

"Ok then. You can come in now Tazuna." Sarutobi called.

A drunken man wearing brown work clothes and a bottle of sake in hand stumbled in to the room. "Are these the runts who are supposed to be protecting me. They look like they wouldn't last a second in a real fight. Especially the kid with the hair that looks like a ducks arse." He said his voice slurring slightly making the Teams snicker.

Kushina's only reply was. "Well don't worry you have three of the strongest jounins in Konoha backing them up. Now I want all of you to head home and pack and meet at the city gates in 3 hours."

They each silently departed but not before Cerino went over to Sarutobi and once again retrieved his kunai but she could of sworn she saw him whisper something to the aged Hokage but she couldn't read his lips due to the angle.

**-with Cerino-**

As he entered his temporary home Cerino saw Yugito lounging on a couch slurping on a milkshake of sorts. "Hey I'm gonna be gone on a mission for a week or two so behave yourself. And please don't empty the vaults on one of your shopping spree's."

"Ok." Was his reply as she stood up and walked over to him. But instead of simply saying goodbye she hugged him making him go stiff from reflex. "Take care of yourself little bro. I know how you always seem to be where all the action is so stay alert."

"Oh. Look who's getting sentimental. What's next? You going to rent a chick flick and a box of tissues." Cerino said with a grin only to be slapped upside the head.

"I'm being serious. You nearly collapsed on me several times back there! Even you oh mighty one have your limits. And the way your testing them I'm afraid you'll push it too far. I mean when was the last time you…stretched properly?" She asked looking worried carefully choosing her words.

Cerino sighed. "Back at the clearing before our arrival." He answered truthfully.

"You see!? That what I mean. You know that your chakra can't remain cooped up for more than a couple of months! And I very damn well know what happens after that!"

"Don't worry I'll shift on the trip to buy some time. I'll probably do it during the night while I have watch."

"Ok." Yugito said sounding relieved slightly. "But remember don't push your self to far."

"Yes mom." Cerino said only to receive another smack to the head.

**-three hours later-**

All of the teams plus Tazuna met up at the gate and before long they set off. The genin were excited. This was their first time out of the village and they were excited to see new things.

But Chouji noticed something odd. "Hey Cerino where's your gear?" This brought the others attention to how Cerino had no pack or gear on him of any kind.

Reaching into his cloak Cerino produced a scroll. Twirling it in his fingers Cerino said. "No worry. I don't really like packs so I learned minor sealing techniques to make up for it."

No one else really bothered him after that. Little oddities like this were starting to lose their effect on them.

After several hours they came upon a puddle in the road. All of the jounin noticed it and nodded to each other. Cerino, Naruto, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba noticed it to with the latter barely catching on after a seconds thought and a whiff of the air. Akamaru growled lightly.

As they past it two figures rose out of it. They each had a wicked metal gauntlet on opposite arms connected by a long and very sharp chain. Rushing forward they encircled the jounin and with a pull ripped them apart. Sakura screeched in horror, Ino stared in disbelief along with the others.

"Three down." One said.

"Nine to go." Finished the other as they charged.

Cerino was the first to spring into action. Drawing his katana he sliced the chain in half in one fluid motion. Seeing their main weapon now useless they changed tact. Charging Cerino from both sides they each took a swipe at him. Ducking under the one in front of him and using his forward momentum he did an aerial roundhouse kick to the others face.

The other brother swung around and moved to slice Cerino's arm with his claws. Which were visibly dripping with poison. Dodging to the side Cerino only received a nick on the arm. Team 7 snapping out of their stupor sprang to action with Shino close behind while Team 10 guarded Tazuna.

"Gatsuuga!" Kiba cried turning once more into a mini tornado as he began to separate the brothers. Naruto knocked one off balance so Hinata could rush forward Byakugan activated closing key Tenketsu so he could not mold chakra only to have it sucked away by Shino's bugs and knocked against a tree by Kiba. Akamaru ran up to him and growled as if daring him to try and get up.

They turned to help Cerino only to find him dodging a right hook from his opponent and fluidly took a hold of his wrist with his right hand and with his left palm broke his elbow inwards causing him to scream and the others to wince in sympathy.

But he didn't stop there! Continuing around he wrapped his left forearm around his throat he put his right hand on his opponents chin and began to turn his head. His opponent put up a little of a fight before his neck muscles gave out and there was a sickening crack as he collapsed to the floor…dead.

"KOHAKU!!!" The one laying against the tree shouted seeing his brother die. He then collapsed against the tree all of the fighting spirit in his eye's gone. He only stared blankly at his comrades corpse.

The others were stunned. How could someone be so cold. To kill someone in cold blood when they were obviously no longer a threat was simply…wrong.

There was a swirl of leaves and before them and their stood their sensei's unharmed and very much alive. While Kakashi interrogated the enemy ninja Kushina confronted Cerino.

She stood before him starring slightly up at him as she studied his eyes. Although they were different and difficult to read she was able to get her answers from them. He held no remorse for killing that enemy proving that it wasn't his first kill and he knew it wouldn't be his last. She asked one simple question.

"Why? Why did you kill him? You could of easily restrained him!" She said showing that she was quiet angry with him.

He simply stared back. "Cause we are ninja and it's our job. Weather we like it or not. To restrain him would have been pointless seeing as only one would be required for interrogation. I admit that I don't like it and I never will. But I've learned to live with it. I grew up my whole life killing others to survive."

"But that doesn't justify killing someone one when they could be spared!" Kushina retaliated.

"So what? Either way he would die. We can't afford to let them go for that would jeopardize our mission. If anything I was merciful sparring him the interrogation."

"I don't know where you were brought up." Kushina said shaking her head. "But that is not how we do things here." Turning back to the others they began to question Tazuna.

Before leaving Kushina glanced at Cerino's upper arm. "Here let me check that out. We will probably need to reopen it the drain most of the poison out so that it isn't fatal."

"I think your seeing things Kushina." Cerino said opening the cut cloth to reveal unscathed skin. "He only nicked my coat. One of the many advantages of a cloak." And soon after they all agreed to move on.

Later on that night as they were making camp and had supper the issue of who would take watch aroused. "I'll take first watch." Cerino volunteered. Everyone hadn't spoken a word to Cerino after Kushina had that talk with him and he seemed to like it that way so they didn't feel like arguing.

"Ok. Just wake me up around 2:00 to take the second shift." Kushina said as she headed to her tent. Everyone else did the same.

As Naruto laid down he went through the usually ritual. '_Good night Yumi._' (I didn't give Kyuubi a name last chapter because I couldn't think of one.)

"**Goodnight Naruto**" Yumi replied.

**-later that night-**

Around 11:00 when Cerino was positive that they were all asleep he discreetly made a shadow clone which took his place on the tree branch he had been lounging on and he slipped into the night.

**-next morning-**

Naruto was sleeping rather well in his tent when he was awoke by shouting. Quickly springing to action he grabbed his katana, and rushed out of the tent expecting an attack but all he saw was his mother yelling at Cerino who was simply lounging on the same tree branch as last night staring down at her blankly.

"Why didn't you wake me! Your no good to us dead tired Cerino!" Glancing around Naruto found the others in the same state.

Before further inquiry was made Cerino replied. "There was no use waking you. I needed time to think and I wouldn't of been able to sleep anyways. So it's a win-win scenario. You get your rest and I get my answers."

"But that's still no reason to break orders." Kushina said exasperatedly. "Fine no use whining about it now. But you better keep up we aren't slowing down for you!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Cerino replied.

You could tell that all that day Kushina was looking for any sign of Cerino being tired but none showed themselves. All that day Cerino kept up with them not once nodding off or slowing down. He didn't even have dark spots under his eyes!

Brushing it off they continued their journey. As they came to the shore they found a small boat waiting for them. It was to small for them all so the jounin said they would water walk along side of it. "I know the exercise too so I will join them." Naruto said grinning at Sasuke's glare after the jounin demonstrated the technique.

"Does anyone else know the water-walking exercise?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah." Cerino answered not surprising anyone seeing as he was just full of them and after his demonstration at the team selection.

So they were off the jounin, Naruto, and Cerino running along side the cramped boat while the engine was running. A mist began to roll in thus impairing their vision and soon after the boat driver killed the motor and began to manually steer them to shore. For 'safety' reason's.

As the ninja walked by the boat Sakura was fawning over Sasuke and being so close to him. Ino could only watch in disgust. 'Did I really act like that at the academy?'

Off to the side Kurenai couldn't help but smile. '_She's finally realized how stupid she has been acting._' She thought. She had even seen her contemplating cutting her hair. Which she seemed to really like it grown out.

They soon caught sight of an enormous bridge. It was magnificent. The bridge would surely be able to support the small country of wave. "Tazuna if I may ask. Where did you get the funding for this bridge?" Kakashi asked staring at the bridge. "If Wave is as poor as you say then this must have put a couple hundred people out on the streets."

"You are partially correct Kakashi." Tazuna said looking down trodden. "Most of the beams and cement are from temples and buildings we've torn down for materials. And the rest we bought and transported to Wave using several of the hidden boats we were able to hide from Gato. The people who gave and sold all of their possessions usually moved in with close friends and family. They did it because they knew that in the long run…we would be freed thanks to their generosity." It was silent after that as they mulled that over in their minds.

They finally reached the opposite shore after several more minutes. Bidding the boat driver farewell they continued on to Tazuna's house hoping to get there before dark.

As they were walking when Kiba and Naruto thanks to Yumi giving him enhanced senses caught the smell of metal, sharpening oil, and death. Acting in a flash Kiba tossed a kunai into a nearby bush. Upon further inspection they found a snow white rabbit looking ready to jump out of it's skin.

As Sakura began to scold Kiba for his action the jounin began to question the breed of the rabbit. Then they all hear a sound that they had heard many times before. The sound of a large metal object flying through the air straight towards them. "DUCK!!!" They all said in unison Kakashi grabbing Tazuna and dragging him with them.

A large zanbatou flew right over their heads and buried itself into a tree several yards ahead of them. A ninja in cow styled pants, bandages wrapped around his lower face and no eyebrows appeared on the hilt of the sword soon after it stopped it's deadly cyclone. "Well-well-well. Kushina Namikaze Konoha's Red Death, Kakashi Hatake the Copy Cat Ninja, and Kurenai Yuuhi The Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha. No wonder the Demon Brothers failed to kill the old man. Three Konoha legends all to protect one bridge builder?"

"Momochi Zabuza Demon of the Bloody Mist. Now what would you be doing here?" Kakashi replied. Naruto tensed up at the name. His mother had made him read the bingo book front to back and told him that if he were to ever encounter one of the men/woman in their he was to flee as quickly as he could.

"It's truly an honor to meet you all. And I would gladly stay and exchange titles and stories with you but sadly I'm in a rush so please hand over the bridge builder now and no one has to get hurt." Zabuza said jumping down from his post and retching his sword out of the tree as a thick mist started to form around them.

Kushina was very nervous now. Her first instinct was to tell Naruto to run. But she couldn't let him run. tightening the grip on her hilt she knew the best thing she could do was defend him.

"I'm sorry but we can't do that Zabuza. So you are going to have to either leave or fight us!" Kakashi said pulling up his head band revealing his trump card. The Sharingan.

Sasuke stared angrily at Kakashi. '_How does he have the Sharingan!? A filthy commoner such as him doesn't deserve it's power!_'

"Weeelll. I truly am honored. Revealing your Sharingan so early in a fight. You must really be taking me seriously!" Zabuza laughed out stepping back into the mist and onto a lake nearby before he was fully obscured by the mist.

"Kushina, Kurenai defend Tazuna!" Kakashi said stepping forward into the mist. The genin tightened formation around Tazuna while Kushina and Kurenai guarded the sides.

"There are eight points. Eight points of which I can hit to kill you. The larynx, spine, liver, collarbone, jugular vein, kidneys, brain, and the heart. Which should I choose?"

Cerino was having a flashback of his first C rank. The date of which was tattooed on his arm.

**-flashback-**

The only thing that could describe the moon light bathed cliff edge was destruction. Destruction covered it. In the form of blood, limbs, and corpses. The once forest covered cliff edge was either hacked into splinters are burned into ash. The only form of life was a small figure kneeling before the only patch of grass in the radius of 100 meters.

The figure was obviously crying by the way it's small form shook and shuddered every few seconds. The young boy no older than 9 years old whose white hair was dyed crimson from his earlier rage. He could only stare at both his crimson hands and back to his dead teammates. They had not died by his hands but he couldn't help but feel responsible.

His eye's fell on the form of a young boy barely 14 years old boy. Who's face was frozen eye's open staring at the sky with a peaceful look on his face. As if he had done what his heart commanded in the last seconds of his life. The only implication that he was dead was the rather large pool of blood around his body. The boy only sobbed hard at that. His sobbing grew an grew until he was wailing at the full moon above him.

A few miles away a women with similar snow white hair that reached her waste heard the wail but to her it sounded like a wolf howling. But she knew who it was. "CERINO!" She cried before crashing through the underbrush heading straight to him. 'I swear to motherfucking kami I will kill whoever hurts my son!'

**-flashback end-**

He too tightened his grip on the hilt of his still sheathed sword. 'I WILL NOT allow their first real mission to turn out like MINE!' Cerino all but vowed glancing at the genin surrounding them. They each looked ready to faint as they felt the killer intent wash over them.

Kakashi noticed that Zabuza was gathering a large amount of chakra and was about to move in when he noticed that Zabuza's chakra signature had split! 'Clones!' Kakashi thought as he saw two of them move by him as another charged him but he easily dispatched it. But it had served it's purpose.

The two clones were bearing down on the group. "Lookout!" Kakashi shouted as he saw the clone appear directly in the middle of the group.

Kushina and Kurenai alerted by the shout were about to move when they saw the clone. But it was already moving to cleave the entire group in half and they were at the wrong angle to strike.

Then a rustle of fabric. A black blur and the next moment Cerino appeared digging a kunai into the clones neck a soundless snarl firmly planted on his face. But the victory was short lived as the second appeared in front of him and delivered a bone breaking kick to Cerino's chest launching him toward the water. As Cerino sailed through the air he was able to launch a kunai directly between the clones eyes before he could move on to the others.

"Cerino!" Kushina shouted sprinting after him. "Protect Tazuna!" Kushina shouted back toward Kurenai seeing that she was getting ready to move in also.

Kushina didn't get far before another clone appeared before her only to be sliced in half by her blade. Moving toward Kakashi they soon were within speaking range.

"Where's Cerino?" Kushina asked him as the stood back to back waiting for another attack.

"On the lake fighting a couple of clones and we got several heading our direction and Kurenai put a Genjutsu up to protect her and the genin." Kakashi replied.

"Is there any chance we can get to him?" Kushina said back as the clones neared.

"Not without fighting off these clones!" Kakashi replied side stepping one of them delivering his elongated kunai to it's neck before moving on.

Kushina was trying to think of a way to get to Cerino as she sliced one clones head off. She didn't know how strong he was but he couldn't possibly hold up against an S-class criminal for long. 'Let's hope you got more than one trick up your sleeve Cerino.'

As this was going on Cerino was out on the lake trying to lay down a game plan. He had finally drawn his sword and had cut down one clone with it and he and a second clone were circling each other. 'Ok I shifted yesterday so I should be good to use all my chakra.' At that he chuckled.

"What's so funny shrimp?" The clone asked albeit though Cerino was the same height as him.

"It's just been a while since I've had a decent Kenjutsu match. And that it's also been a while since I've turned up the heat!" Cerino said before flashing through a group of handsigns in a flash. "Fire Style: Dragons Breathe Jutsu!"

'What!' The clone thought as the golden flames sprung at him and he instinctively leapt to the side. Only for the clone to turn to steam as it past by him.

Zabuza felt the chakra spike and decided to finish this quickly. Creating a few more clone they raced off for the jounin and Cerino.

As Kushina and Kakashi finished off the last of the clones they were about to move for Cerino until another clone appeared behind Kakashi only for it to be stabbed in the gut before it could move. But that's what it wanted. Dropping a explosive tag Kakashi didn't have time to move before it went off.

Flung into the air he was thrown onto the pond and sunk into it. 'This water it's thicker than normal.' Kakashi thought before he heard something above him "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!"

And sure enough an orb of water encircled Kakashi lifting him up out of the water. The mist began to thin for the Konoha ninja to see their captured comrade. It was deafly quiet signaling that Cerino's fight was over also. For better or worst they didn't know.

"Stand down now or I will cut of his oxygen supply!" Zabuza ordered Kushina. Seeing no way out of it she lowered her sword not knowing how to save him yet.

"Now hand over the bridge builder and I'll let him free. I'll also hand over the other brat. Or at least his corpse." Zabuza taunted.

Kushina didn't know weather to believe him or not. No one moved for a good minute before Zabuza finally grew impatient and said. "Fine since that's how it's got to be. You might want take a deep breathe Kakashi this could take a whARGHHHHH!"

Even as he said this a katana pierced through his chest. A katana wielded by a familiar black clad enigma. "So I'm a corpse now right? Word of advice Zabuza don't bluff about something you ain't 100 percent sure about!" Cerino…well he looked like shit. His body was soaked with water and his own blood. There were cuts ranging from nicks to slashes all over him. And he was obviously pissed! "Now I'm calling the shots here! Now release Kakashi and dispel the rest of your godamned clones! Or I will rend yer motherfucking heart in two!"

The clones around Kushina dispersed into water but the water prison didn't change. At that Cerino twisted the blade earning a gasp from Zabuza. The water prison fazed and slowly began to disperse. Forming a plan he let it fall instantly and flashing through a series of handsigns he called his move. "Water Style: Grand Waterfall Jutsu!" A pillar of water rose from the water and smashed into him and Cerino shooting them into the water and into the tree's.

Cerino groaned as his back hit a tree and the water dyed down leaving him in a puddle of red water. Then the whole scene with the hunter-nin happened leaving the group quietly.

Kushina quickly sprung into action rushing to Cerino's side. At the moment he was clutching a branch above him and was pulling himself to his feet. "Hey hold up there Cerino sit back down Let me check out those wounds." Kushina said placing a hand on his chest. Getting a nod from Cerino she helped him to the ground again.

Leaning his head back against the tree he let out a bark like laugh as he said. "Just got the wind knocked out of me I'm fine."

"You won't be if you bleed anymore Cerino." Kushina replied. A few minutes of silence passed as she healed the bigger gashes mainly on his torso. "That was pretty clever of you Cerino. Sneaking up on an S-rank ninja is a feat nearly impossible for a genin." She said with a smile.

"Yeah thanks Cerino. You saved us a lot of trouble." Kakashi said.

Cerino chuckled slightly only to hiss as Kushina healed one of the bigger wounds. "Ok that's all I can do here. Is your house far?" She questioned.

"No. It's about a good five miles down the road." Tazuna answered pointing down the way they were heading.

"Just one thing." Cerino said reaching over and retrieving sword from his side Kushina was finally able to get a good look at it.

It was the same length as any katana around three or so feet long. And as the hilt suggested it was beautiful. Near the tip of the blade was a wolfs head hackles raised poised to bite at anything that got near it. Flowing behind the head were what looked to be flames which made the wolf head look like a alternate version of a 'fire dragon'.

"Alright…well up you get Cerino." Kushina said pulling his right arm over her shoulders while his left held on to his sword. "Jeez Cerino! You need to lose some weight." Kushina said adjusting his arm around her shoulder.

"Hey! Muscle weighs more than fat check it out!" Cerino said grinning weakly while flexing his arm. Everyone got a good laugh out of that.

**-Sometime later-**

'Ohh…fuck my head. Feels like I took 10 hits from Tifa straight to the head!' Cerino thought as he forced his body to wake up.

He was about to sit up when a hand pressed against his chest firmly yet softly pushing him down. "Hold up their Cerino. I don't think you should be getting up just yet." Kushina said from her chair beside his bed.

Groaning Cerino reluctantly lowered himself back down on the bed. "How long was I out?" He rasped out.

"You passed out from blood-loss along the way. It's 6:38 p.m. You've been out for a little over 24 hours." Kushina replied fixing the blankets.

"And you're here because…" Cerino asked.

"We knew you would be waking up soon so we had someone here to make sure you didn't get up." She answered simply.

Cerino chuckled before reaching up to his chest above his heart. When he found nothing his eye's snapped open and he nearly sat up again looking around for it.

Kushina chuckled. "Looking for this?" She said while holding up a necklace. It's was simple yet beautiful with a gold chain with a pendant in the shape of a black and white wolf that looked like it was howling. 'He must really like dogs.' Kushina concluded.

Snatching it out of her hand he quickly fastened it around his neck. "If I may ask. Who gave that to you?"

"A very close friend of mine." Cerino replied. After a few minutes of comfortable silence Cerino spoke up again. "When will I be able to get up?"

"After I check and make sure your wounds are properly closed. Speaking of which I should probably do that now." Kushina said moving the blankets aside revealing his bare chest which was covered in bandages.

His torso looked like a horror story all on it's own. It was covered with scars ranging from slashes to stab wounds. Some of the more noticeable ones were the one just above his naval which was round and had a matching one on the other side showing that he had been impaled by a spear or something of the like.

Their were many more like that one but none were as big as it. Then their were the one's on his back. Long gashes that Kushina recognized as whip marks most like from torture seeing as they were all on his back. Then their were the multiple stab wounds along his back from what Kushina recognized as kunai wounds. Kushina had summarized that he received them all at once seeing as none overlapped each other.

Everyone looked amazed by the display of pain when they first took of his shirt. Minato had similar scars on his body so Kushina was used to it she was just surprised that someone so young had already experienced so much pain.

"Well looks like you can get up your wounds have closed up nicely just don't go exerting yourself to much so that they don't reopen." Kushina said with a smile as she re-bandaged Cerino's wounds.

"Where's my clothes?" Cerino asked after noticing that he only had some black shorts on.

"Here's one of your shirts. I was able to get one of your scrolls open with the blood on the bandages." She said handing him a wife beater. After he had slipped it on she then helped him to his feet and walked with him down stairs to the kitchen where the others were getting ready for dinner.

Kiba was first to notice them as they walked into the kitchen where they were eating. "Hey Cerino you feeling any better?" This drew their attention to them as Cerino sat down inbetween Hinata and Naruto.

"Well other than being sore and hungry I got no reason to complain. As I'm pretty sure you noticed I've had worst.' Cerino said sighing as he rested his elbow on the table resting his cheek on his fist.

"Well I just want to say thank-you for helping to get my father here safely!" Tsunami said after being introduced by Kurenai.

"No prob." Cerino said back with a smile.

"Cerino I don't mean to bother you more in your injured state but we've been thinking and we have summarized that Zabuza is alive." Kakashi said seeing as he told the group yesterday it was only fair Cerino knew as well.

"Yeah I guessed as much seeing as the hunter-nin are supposed to 'dispose' of the body on the spot." Cerino answered back only getting a nod from Kakashi.

"Yes so we've decided we would have today to relax and rest and tomorrow we would begin training."

"Alrighty then."

They ate in silence after that thinking on assorted things. After a while Hinata asked a question that had been bugging her ever since she had seen him without a shirt on. "Say Cerino what are those date's on your arm for?" Once again all eye's were on him.

Their were four altogether and each were written with different colors and designs. The first was written in gold and seemed to shine almost. The next was blood red and seemed to have blood running down it. The one after that was about a year later and seemed to be made out of platinum blonde tread or hair. The next was about another year later and was black and white and seemed to resemble his cloak.

Cerino slowly finished his bite of food before answering. "Life changing days." He said shortly pointing to the first on his shoulder which was around when he was seven. "This one I will keep to myself."

Moving down to the second which was two years later. "This one was my first C-rank mission."

He was about to continue when Sasuke cut him off. "Why is that so 'life changing'?" He said in a mocking voice.

Cerino's eye's flashed dangerously at him making him flinch. "Don't mock what you can't understand Uchiha or I will shut you up my self."

"But still what happened to make it so important." Kushina asked genuinely curious.

Cerino sighed before relenting. "It was a simple scouting mission. We go in investigate a bandit camp and get out. Simple. Or so we thought." Once again he sighed leaning back in his chair staring at the ceiling.

"During our mission we got made. The only female member of our team slipped up. It was an idiotic mistake. Seeing as I was younger than the rest of them that made me…well I guess you could say a prodigy. She was one of my many fan girls 'bah'. How I hated them. She cared more for her looks than for her training. But that one slip up caused a tragedy. Apparently their wasn't only bandit's in that camp but ninja also.

Mainly genin with only 2 or 3 chunnin and 1 jounin. He was the leader. Once we realized we had been figured out we made a bee-line for it. But my teammate was wounded and we were forced to carry her out of their thus slowing us down.

It wasn't long before they caught up with us and surrounded us. So it was up for a fight. They simply left us alone for the rest of the night. My teammate died from blood loss during that night seeing as her femoral artery was sliced during our escaped.

So it was just me, my sensei Jun, and my best friend Takeshi surrounded by more than fifteen ninja. We buried Hitomi during the night. Then right then and there we made and agreement. We decide that if we were going to die we decided that we would make sure that our enemies knew that they were in a fight!"

Cerino calmed himself down before continuing. "Jun and Takeshi set up traps during the rest of the night while I cast a rather 'complex' Genjutsu to cover their tracks." That bit perked Kurenai's interest. "And as a backup we rigged the whole clearing with explosives. So that once they were all in the clearing and it was inevitable that we were going to die we would take each and every one of them goddamned nuke-nin with us." Cerino said chuckling bitterly at the end.

"Once that was done there was nothing left to do but sit and wait for them to make the first move." Cerino sighed running a hand through his hair. "That was the worst part of it I would say. Silently waiting for a fight that you know will probably be your last. And of course to set the mood it began to rain.

One of the things that I'll always remember about that period of time was…how quiet it was. Not one of us felt like talking. We were wrapped in our own thoughts. I found it kind of funny and yet I found it kind of sad but…the thoughts going through my head was some of the best I've ever had. It was like…like it was like everything became clear to me and for the first time of my life…my goal was clear, no obstacles, no puzzles, just waiting to make that finally desperate struggle worth while.

Then it began. We noticed movement in the tree line as we gathered around Hitomi's grave. The more inexperienced genin charged first triggering our traps either being killed by kunai and shuriken or being crushed by logs or the like. with their numbers cut nearly in half we leveled the playing field slightly.

But we were still out numbered 2-to-1 at least. The real fighting broke out soon after with Jun engaging the enemy jounin alone as the chunnin and the few surviving genin to us. Of course are chances were bad from the start seeing as we were all out numbered. Soon it came to the point were we knew we were either going to set of our main trap and go out with a bang our continue fighting and let them live.

Kind of obvious what we chose." At that Cerino turned his gaze to the ceiling a small sad smile on his face. "But as we set off the charges Takeshi made the ultimate sacrifice. tackling me to the ground he used his own body as a shield for me…I'll never forget that one moment for it was burned into my brain like a photograph.

I was knocked out from the shockwave. I woke up during the night and was picked up by an ANBU scouting party. (I'm not sure it the ANBU are limited to just Konoha so lets just say that it's a rank like genin or jounin.)

And their you have it. Now you tell me that ain't a life changing day." Cerino finished before gesturing to his arm again. "…and the rest…I'll keep to myself also."

The table was silent. They were in awe at the story and how Cerino seemed to be unaffected by it. "Well I guess that goes to show you. Even one simple mistake in out line of business can cost you your life and the life of your teammates." Cerino continued.

Everyone continued to eat their dinner in silence after that. After cleaning his plate Cerino stood up and stretched before saying. "Well I'm going outside. See you in a few."

Snapping out of her thoughts Kushina asked. "Where are you going?"

"I need to stretch my legs. Ya know get them working properly again. Relax I won't get lost." He answered walking out of the room with a wave and a grin.

Soon after that everyone left for bed their thoughts on various things about their profession.

**-the next morning-**

Tsunami walked into the kitchen half awake pondering on what she should make her guests for dinner only for the smell of sausage and eggs to assault her nose. Entering the kitchen she found Cerino sitting at the table already eating while reading a book.

"Good morning Tsunami." Cerino said startling her.

"Sorry you just startled me that's all. I didn't expect any of you to be up at this hour." She said glancing out the window to find that it was still dark.

"Well where I grew up we followed the concept that 'the early bird gets the worm' type of deal. Lucky for you and for them I made extra." Cerino said looking up from his book grinning.

Tsunami couldn't help but smile back. 'Could this man actually kill someone in cold blood like they said he did.' She thought as she fixed herself a plate. As she was about to take a bite she hesitated.

"It's ok Tsunami I didn't poison it and it's edible." Cerino said not even looking up.

Tsunami flushed and stuttered out. "What makes you think I thought that?"

"Oh nothing just this ongoing stereotype that men are terrible cooks!" Cerino said once again grinning at her. (I hate that! I ain't bragging but I ain't a half-bad cook my self.)

She chuckled silently before taking a bite and finding that it was actually pretty good. "Wow this is delicious! Where'd you learn to cook like this?"

Cerino chuckled and answered. "My mother taught me after I showed some interest in cooking. And I've gotten better over time."

They ate in silence after that as the rest of the household filtered into the kitchen. "Wow Tsunami you really outdid yourself!" Naruto said once everyone was finished.

"Well thank you but it's not me you should be thanking." Tsunami said with a smile.

"Then who is it?" Naruto asked.

His only answer was for Cerino to whistle and point at himself still reading his book.

Everyone just anime stared at him as he seemingly oblivious to the stares turned the page.

"Well since you are all finished up I think we should move onto that training Kakashi mentioned yesterday." Cerino said as he put his book away finally noticing that they were staring at him. "What?"

Snapping out of their stupors they all began to make their way out of the house. Upon seeing Cerino following Kushina quickly stopped him. "Nonononono you ain't going anywhere Cerino. We can't have you re-opening those wound now can we. You just take it easy and give your wounds more time to close up properly."

"Relax Kushina I got a way to fight without pushing my body too far. I just need to practice a little seeing that it's been awhile since I used the techniques required for it."

Kushina sighed knowing that is was futile to try and dissuade him.

"Ok. Under two conditions. One: you stay within sight. Two: you will stop immediately if any of your wounds re-open to give them time to close back up. Your still a little paler than usual so I wouldn't recommend losing to much blood."

"Got it." Cerino said as he continued out side and to where the others had headed off to. He wore black loose fitting ANBU style cargo pants with another wife beater.

Cerino entered the clearing in the forest as Kakashi and Kurenai explained the tree walking exercise the teams 8 and 10 as Kushina showed Hinata and Kiba the water walking exercise while she gave Naruto some tougher exercises to do during the water walking like sticking leaves on different parts of your bodies with chakra while running on it. They left Cerino alone seeing as he would have his own training regime.

As they did that Cerino walked over to the far side of the clearing before sitting down and pulling out a sealing scroll. Unsealing it's contents their lied before him 15 blue orbs each identical in size and shape with intricate seals etched all around them. Picking each one up and examining them closely for any flaw in the seals and pushing a small amount of chakra into them so that they glowed blue slightly.

Kushina finishing instructing her team leaned casually against a tree and watched as he inspected the strange orbs. 'They seem to be able to hold any chakra that is given to them. And the seals are probably what molds the chakra. But what for is the question.' Hey what can I say being the wife of a sealing legend has it's perks.

Once he was sure that they were all in perfect condition he charged each of them with a set amount of chakra so that they shimmered with stored chakra before rolling them out in front of him before rolling back up the scroll and sticking it back in his pants pocket.

Standing up Cerino closed his eye's and got into a sort of meditative pose with his hands in front of his stomach palms facing up. Breathing in deeply he brought them out to the side and upwards till his arms were extended straight up before he turned his palms down and as he exhaled he brought his hands back down.

Opening his eye's again revealing that they had once more turned pure golden! Now that Kushina had a better look she saw that his eyes didn't seem to have any iris just a pupil. Around the pupil were what looked to be five teardrops with the tips facing the pupil. They each were pitch black and identical much like the Sharingan's tomeo.

Slipping into a loose stance he focused on the blue orbs as they glowed a little brighter before floating into the air making Kushina raise an eyebrow. They began to arrange themselves so that they surrounded and circled Cerino as his eyes scanned each one for something.

Then one of the orbs behind Cerino shifted from blue to green. With surprising speed due to his injuries Cerino whirled around careful not to move his bandaged torso too much and shot what looked to be an orb of pure highly compressed chakra at it. There was a low 'ping' as the orb was struck by the attack and flew back a good distance before stopping and sailing back into the circle once again glowing blue.

Another 'ping' rang through the clearing as another orb turned green and was struck by another orb of chakra. Kushina was perplexed by the strange attack Cerino was using. Seeing as the orbs were probably designed to withstand the attack she wasn't seeing it's full affect. Cerino's hands were glowing with the amount of chakra apparently needed for the attack. He never missed a target as this continued.

The whole area was bombarded my a fuselage of 'pings' effectively drawing everyone's attention as the tempo of the pings grew faster and faster. It got to the point that when Cerino would shot one orb another would immediately turn green. Then to shake things up two orbs on completely different sides of Cerino glowed green.

'How is he supposed to hit th…' Kushina thought only to be interrupted by to rather loud 'pings' as Cerino hit them dead on.

This continued on as they continued to turn green only to be shot down a second later. Soon it got to the point where two would turn green at a time and once more the tempo began to grow faster and faster until there was hardly any space between the pings as the area around Cerino became a blur of blue and green orbs and the strange chakra 'blasts' Cerino was firing. Cerino seemed to be doing some kind of dance as he span and twirled in place his arms out stretched a grin plastered on his face.

Then it began to slow down the pings tempo began to slow down and after the orbs settled back into their positions as they glowed a peaceful blue. Cerino simply stood in the center as they continued to circled. Staring at them with those golden eye's like a hawk searching for it's prey. His hands were enveloped in chakra showing that his attack was ready.

Then in unison every single orb glowed green at the same time. Spectators stared dumb-founded as Cerino grinned lowered both arms his attack fading and he raised his right arm into the air palm open as if grabbing something. There was a blinding flash of light as all the chakra in the orbs seemed to be 'leeched' from them forming an orb of pure chakra in Cerino's hand as he brought it up to eye level.

The orbs began to fall to the ground. Until the chakra in Cerino's hand dispersed into each one again catching them before they his the ground. They once again rose into the air and began to do something different. Forming a straight line in front of Cerino hardly an inch in between them. Cerino once again grinned as he pointed his right arm at the ground forming another chakra blast.

He shot it into the ground and it seemed to travel through the ground like a shockwave kicking up dust as it thundered toward the orbs as they remained unmoving. There was a rather loud 'PING' upon impact as the orbs flew back into the forest clunking of a trees and some even got imbedded into the trees as they ceased glowing. The area were the shockwave ripped through looked as if a rockslide went through it as the grass had been uprooted and the soil had been churned.

Cerino relaxed his stance as he pulled the scroll out of his pocket and resealed the orbs before sticking it back into his pocket. Once he had replaced the scroll inside his pants pocket he stretched his arms and back before turning back to the group. He froze in mid step as he noticed that they were all staring at him or more in particular his eyes.

Once again he said only one word. "What?"

"Y-y-you h-have a doujutsu?!" Naruto stuttered out in amazement.

"Yeah yeah I have a bloodline so what?" Cerino said casually.

"Then why haven't you used it before?" Chouji asked.

While off to the side Shikamaru muttered. "Troublesome."

"Quite frankly I don't like using it right off the bat during a fight. It gives me a trump card to pull out of things get messy." Was the response to the question.

Now that on it's own was a strange thing to do seeing as any clan with a doujutsu learns to use it right off the bat to gain a tactical advantage from the start. "So your saying that you've had a bloodline limit this whole time you just haven't felt like using it!?" Kiba said from his spot on the water as he somehow miraculously stayed on the surface along with Hinata when they began to watch Cerino's 'training'.

"Yeah that's pretty much hitting the nail on the head." Cerino answered back shrugging.

"Weeeeell I wouldn't say that's completely true. I did use it to see through the mist and sneak up on Zabuza but that was the only time I used it ever since I arrived. Which is why I wanted to get some practice in with it.

You see my clan is different from the Uchiha or the Hyuga. Unlike them we don't rely completely on our doujutsu during a fight. One of their greatest weaknesses is that when you take their doujutsu from either of them they can be easily taken down seeing as they have trained only using their doujutsu. Although the Uchiha are better off seeing as they have at least 'some' experience fighting without their doujutsu." Cerino finished with a shrug. "But not that much better."

"So what is your doujutsu called?" Kushina asked after a minute where Hinata was in a thinking pose and Sasuke was fuming.

"Go-ruden-manako." Cerino answered back simply. (Which translates into 'golden eye'. I know not the best of names but I thought it fit.)

"And what does it do?" Hinata asked

"Jeez do you guys want me to give you my life story while I'm at it?" Cerino asked with a smirk. "That should at least answer most of your questions!"

"Well we need to know what it does so we know what your capable of and how we could use it with Hinata's Byakugan and Sasuke's Sharingan." Kurenai retorted back politely.

Cerino sighed before rubbing the back of his head and said. "Well Sasuke looks like you are getting a break. I was going to let you mull it over a little while longer but…ok I'll bite." Looking at them having already deactivated his doujutsu he began. "Now there are many theories and suspicions about just 'where' the Hyuga and the Uchiha got their bloodline. Some say the Byakugan was a gift from Kami itself and the Sharingan was a gift from some powerful demon. Well they are both wrong." The listeners were beginning to wonder how this would explain his bloodlines abilities but didn't interrupt. "The Sharingan and Byakugan are really just as I said before 'bi-products' past down from an older and stronger doujutsu. Any guesses which one?"

"W-wait you mean to tell me that the Sharingan was developed from…" Kakashi began but trailed off settling only to stare at Cerino with his only good eye.

"Bingo the Sharingan and the Byakugan both descended from my bloodline."

There was a pregnant silence as the group could only stare at Cerino and he simply stared back. "B-but THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!" Sasuke shouted back his Sharingan flaring to life. He didn't want to reveal that he had obtained his Sharingan just yet seeing as he was going to use it to copy some of Cerino's jutsu but he lost control in his anger. "THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE ALL POWERFUL SHARINGAN DECENDED FROM A DOUJUTSU AS PATHETIC YOURS!"

Cerino simply leveled his gaze with Sasuke's Sharingan. "Believe what you will Uchiha I ain't going to waste the time and the energy needed to convince you. But you can't escape the truth that your 'all powerful' Sharingan is only a cheap imitation of what it's predecessor could do.

Now where was I…oh right. Now the Sharingan and Byakugan while descended from my doujutsu they both capitalized on the two key abilities only on weaker stages. My eye's can see in every direction and when I focus on it I can see for miles around. Meaning that my clan has it's own version of the Hyuga's 'gentle fist'.

And while the Sharingan can copy jutsu it only copies the hand signs and how the opponent molds his chakra to complete the jutsu. My bloodline does that but it also breaks the jutsu down and allows me to know every detail about the jutsu thus allowing me to copy jutsu faster and more execute copied jutsu more effectively right off the bat."

"And those attacks you just used are they…techniques your doujutsu grants you." Kushina asked after a second of silence.

"I guess you could say that. It's basically in the same ball park as the Hyuga's gentle fist. Anyone can do it but not as effectively seeing as my bloodline helps me mold my chakra properly. The other one I used is one of my doujutsu key abilities meaning that anyone without my doujutsu can't use it. I can sap the chakra out of anything that doesn't have chakra coils such as clones. You see without chakra coils they can't hold onto their own chakra so I can easily sap their chakra out of them and use it against them. So next time Zabuza summons his clones he will be in a big surprise"

Cerino answered with a grin at the end. "Now I believe we had some training to do?"

That snapped the jounin out of their stupor and they continued to instruct their students in their exercises.

**-five days later-**

Ever since the first day of training they stayed on a strict training schedule as they continued to train with the tree/water walking exercises and Cerino practiced some more with his 'chakra bullets' as he called them.

He showed them that there were two different types of bullets also. The basic one was used to throw or crush an opponent while the more advanced one could slice and opponent as he demonstrated of a tree trunk which was effectively ripped to shreds. He also showed them that it didn't take as much chakra as they thought. The key was how compressed the chakra was.

While this was going on their would always be a small group of genin and at least one jounin guarding Tazuna as he continued on working on his bridge. The more time they stayed at Tazuna's the more they realized how poor wave was making them want to help them even more…well almost all of them. Sasuke was furious at Cerino for disrespecting his 'precious' Sharingan and would constantly hound him about teaching him. And Sakura would constantly berate him for turning him down saying that 'people would kill to have the honor of teaching Sasuke.'

As the week went on Ino was beginning to become more and more disgusted with they was she acted if Sakura's fawning was any indignation to how she acted during the academy. She now understood why Kurenai was constantly telling her that if she cared about her team at all she would get over her crush. And Cerino's story was further proof of the danger she was putting her team in. So she began training. Not only on chakra control. But on many other things also. She even asked Kurenai if she could teach her some Genjutsu which she happily agreed to.

Sakura's only response to her behavior was a 'Fine less competition for me.'

The rest took Ino's changes in stride and quickly accepted her as part of the group and they continued to train. Very soon everyone had learned the tree walking exercise and began on the water walking exercise.

While this was going on Inari Tsunami's son finally had his little 'outburst'.

**-flash back to day 3-**

Everyone was gathered around the kitchen table eating a delicious supper that Tsunami and Cerino had made seeing as he had stayed at the house that day for a break seeing as one of his wounds had re-opened the day before on accident.

They were talking and laughing and Ino was showing them a Genjutsu Kurenai had taught her that day earning applause from the group after the dancing monkey had disappeared from the table. The jounin couldn't help but smile as the group of genin began telling jokes and discussing training idea's they had planned when they got home.

There was a roar of laughter as Cerino was recalling a rather humorous incident with his mother. "…Then she looks at me and says. 'Where the hell did that pan come from?' and then I go "I don't know you tell me!'" That earned another bout of laughter from the listeners. Cerino wiped a tear away from his eye and continued. "Then next thing we know the whole courtyard is covered with pans! Now at that moment my mother was effing pissed and she began to tear the courtyard apart looking for them. Oh the looks on their faces when she found them by the lake. Then she chases them for the rest of the day! And I was too busy laughing my ass off to save them when she caught em'. Needless to say they were kept busy the rest of the night! But I could tell my mother was just as amused by it as I was she just was trying to cover it up unlike yours truly!" Cerino finished chuckling. Everyone was surprised when Cerino revealed that he had a humorous side under that serious attitude of his.

They continued to laugh and joke for a few minutes longer until the silent boy in the corner of the room finally snapped. "Why do you try so hard! You're just going to die like the rest of the people who stood up to Gato!" That drew everyone's attention to him.

"Inari don't say that!" Tsunami scolded the boy.

"So what it's true!" Inari retorted.

The others stared sympathetically at Inari. They had been told about how his father had been executed in public.

"You don't know that."

Everyone glanced at Cerino as he looked at Inari and he back at him.

"Yeah I do! Everyone who has stood up to him have been swatted away like flies!" Inari retorted.

"No one is flawless. No warrior is infallible. The indestructible were made to be destroyed, the invincible were made to be beaten. Gato is no different." Cerino said tactfully.

"Do you honestly think 13 people can stand up to the army of thugs Gato has!" Inari yelled back.

"Yes I do. It's been proven time and time again that with the proper training and skill one ninja can take on a small army of bandits no problem. And you have 13 highly trained ninja before you. Not to mention 3 of Konoha's strongest jounin. Why do you think Gato is trying so hard to stop us? I'll tell you why. He's scared. He's scared that we can break his hold on wave and crush his empire." Cerino answered back still calm as ever.

"It doesn't matter! It won't be enough it never will!" Inari said now on the verge of tears. "If my father couldn't do it what chance do you have!"

"And what would he think of your behavior now? What would he say to you upon seeing you in your current state. Locking yourself in your room to cry your eye's out while you wallow in self-pity and loathing. Wouldn't your father want you to be happy? Trust me I know how it feels. You just want to give up and not care about anything ever again. You continuously think of things you could of done to save him but were too weak to do so." Cerino said.

Inari just stared at him in amazement. That was exactly what he thought and how he felt. "What do you know about it!?" He shouted back crying openly.

Cerino let out a small sad laugh as he turned his gaze to his right bicep or more importantly to the dates tattooed their. "You don't think I watch my whole team die before me and not go through what you are now? For weeks a remained locked in my room only eating enough to survive and didn't communicate to anyone not even my mother. That is until she broke my door down and beat some sense into me…and I do mean that quite literally." Cerino almost subconsciously began to rub his jaw as if to make sure it was alright. "And not a day goes by that I resent her for that. She was able tear down that emotional barrier I had set up while I drowned in self-pity. She sat down and made me talk about it.

After that I only trained harder than before. For now I had a drive, a goal. I promised to myself that I would not allow that to happen again. And it didn't. Now let me ask you…do you have a goal do you have anyone you want to continue your fathers legacy or are you going to crawl into the shadows and cower in the face of danger? The choice is yours and only yours to make." Cerino said leveling a challenging gaze at Inari.

His only response was for Inari to get up and walk away from the table. Tsunami made a move to follow him only to be stopped by Cerino.

"No. Let him go. He needs time to himself to sort things out."

**-flashback end-**

Everyone was currently eating supper once again the only difference was that they were talking strategy not joking around. "Ok tomorrow will be the most likely day that Zabuza will make his return so we need to be ready. I say we all go to the bridge to take him head on. Tazuna you have warned all the workers not to show up tomorrow right?" Kakashi said from his spot at the table.

"Right. My workers won't show up unless they are given the ok." Tazuna said from his spot beside Tsunami.

"What if Gato sends someone to kidnap Tsunami and Inari to use as hostages?" Shino spoke up for the first time.

"However troublesome it is he's right. If Gato is as scared as Cerino said he is he will defiantly try and get some kind of bargaining chip to use." Shikamaru agreed for once wide awake.

"We've already discussed that and have decided that Cerino will stay here and defend them." Kakashi answered back.

"What?!" Cerino responded looking rather pissed.

"Look Cerino we've already decided that due to your injuries you would be of no use to us if someone were able to get close enough to you to try and take you down with Taijutsu. And since Gato is most likely to just send thugs thinking that we would all come tomorrow." Kushina retorted calmly.

Cerino sighed in defeat before saying. "Don't you think I had already thought of that? If any one does get close enough to attack me they'll have him to think about." Cerino said biting his thumb and flipping through some hand seals. "Summoning jutsu."

A medium sized plume of smoke appeared only to disperse to reveal a waist high black and white wolf! It looked feral and ready to fight at that very moment as he sat on his haunches looking between them with shockingly blue eyes much like Naruto's. There seamed to be a strange symbol on his forehead which was actually a patch of white fur.

It had powerful leg muscles that looked like it could tear you apart with it's claws. Another noticeable feature was how it's white fur seemed to glow while the black seemed to draw in and trap all light around it. The hair around it's neck seemed to stand up and looked slightly like dreadlocks. It seemed to have both ears pierced by blue loops. (Just picture Link's wolf form in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess only about the size of Akamaru after the Shippuden and again haven't played it google it.)

"Sorry to call you out like this Fenrir but they needed proof that I had back-up." Cerino greeted smiling from ear to ear.

It turned it's gaze to him and appeared to grin also revealing pearly white fangs. **"No problem you know I've always enjoyed spending time with you cub." **Fenrir answered politely.

"Oh where's my manners? Everyone this is Fenrir I guess in Inuzuka terms he's my companion." Cerino then proceeded to introduce Fenrir to the teams.

"So Fenrir as I was explaining to them before I summoned you. If anyone gets too close they will have you to deal with right?" Cerino said elbowing him in the side teasingly.

"**Damn straight."** Fenrir replied with a grin. Or a wolf equivalent of a grin.

"But that still doesn't change the fact that someone needs to stay here and guard Tsunami and Inari and you are best fit for the job Cerino." Kushina retorted.

"Mom I'll stay." Naruto said stunning many.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Kushina asked looking surprised.

"Look it's better this way. As Cerino explained after his training. Who else can perform that jutsu to get rid of Zabuza's clones? If anything that will be our trump card and will help you out in the fight." Naruto retorted.

"However troublesome it is. Naruto's right. Zabuza can summon an army of clone's at the beginning of the fight to level the playing field. We need Cerino their to ensure that we can counter that both effectively and without wasting energy." Shikamaru answered after some thought.

"Or." Sasuke spoke up with a smirk. "He could teach me that jutsu and I can use it?"

"How many times do I have to tell you Uchiha? You can't use it without my doujutsu!" Cerino retorted.

"If your pathetic bloodline can do it then the all powerful Sharingan can." Sasuke said with a smirk. "And besides if that whore of a mother of yours taught you then it has to be easier that you let on."

That was the breaking point. With a howl of rage Fenrir tackled Sasuke who was thrown from the table and into the wall only for Fenrir to pounce on him and bare his fangs ready to rip his throat out.

"**You insult Rei one more time and I swear to motherfucking kami not even Shingami will be able to find your tortured soul once I'm done with you!**" Fenrir growled out sinking his claws into his chest drawing blood and getting his point across.

"That's enough!" Cerino ordered glaring at Fenrir. And as Fenrir returned to his side he said "He doesn't know who he just insulted. And besides I wouldn't expect someone from a clan as mentally unstable as the Uchiha clan to understand. Seeing as they were all wiped out by just one of their own they must have been weaklings." Cerino retorted with a smirked. He seemed to enjoy pushing Sasuke's buttons.

With a howl of rage Sasuke launched himself at Cerino only to be restrained by Kakashi. "YOU DON'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THAT SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

"Practice what you preach Uchiha." Was Cerino's only retort.

Once they all had settled down Kushina sighed and said. "I guess Shikimaru's right. We will need that ability to take care of any clones that Zabuza summons. So Naruto are you sure you can handle this alone?"

"It's okay mom Gato will probably only send a couple of thugs. No need to worry!" Naruto responded with his famous fox grin.

Ok know that that's taken care of I say we all go to sleep." Kurenai said as she stood up and headed to her room.

"She's right we'll need to be in tip-top shape for tomorrow." Kakashi said as they all headed to bed.

"So Fenrir you going back to Kirara or are you staying here?" Cerino asked at the base of the stairs.

"**Sorry man I have to get back to the wife. We're expecting in a couple of months so I need to be at her side**." Fenrir answered.

"Oh well! Hey once we get back why don't you two stay at the compound for awhile I haven't seen you two in ages!" Cerino offered with a grin.

"**Yeah she'll like that. See you tomorrow cub**." Fenrir said before poofing away.

**-the next day-**

It was dawn and everyone was in the living room gearing up. Cerino once again donned his cloak. "Ok now Naruto once you deal with the thugs if any you come straight to the bridge. Tsunami you and Inari should follow him." Kakashi ordered as they all got ready to leave.

At that Inari came down the stairs attracting their attention. "I-I-just wanted to say…good luck!" Inari said with a grin and a wave.

"No problem if everything goes well you'll have your land back before the day is done!" Kurenai replied with a kind smile.

"Ok we've wasted enough time so lets get going!" Kiba said bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Ok let's head out!" Kushina said as they exited the house.(I ain't going to bother with the kidnapping scene it's the same as in the canon. And I know I have been skipping stuff like that but I'm just trying to get this chapter done. I haven't really had very many chances to type in the last couple of month's.)

**-on the bridge-**

As they walked across the bridge a thick mist began to roll in. "I guess we were right. Everyone stick together and Cerino when he summons his clones don't get rid of them right off the bat. Wait…for the opportune moment." Kakashi laid down the game plan.

Cerino only nodded Fenrir already at his side.

As they neared the end of the bridge they came face to face with Zabuza, the fake hunter-nin, an unknown nuke-nin from rock, and another teen also a rock-nin about the same age as the hunter-nin and the genin.

"Well! Looks like you guys figured it out seeing as there are so many of you!" Zabuza said with a grin.

"Yes we did and we have returned for a rematch seeing as the last one was interrupted." Kakashi replied calmly.

"Well then lets not delay this any longer. I got a score to settle with that brat with the attitude." Zabuza said eying Fenrir.

"I see you were at least humbled by our last 'meeting'." Cerino retorted.

"Heh. I have to admit. You did good sneaking up on me. Too bad for you Haku was their to stop the killing blow." Zabuza said and on queue summoned a small army of Water clones along with Haku.

The clones and the originals all attacked as one. But to their immense surprise Cerino only smirked before raising his right arm just like in the clearing. Their was another blinding flash of light and Zabuza and Haku could only watch in horror as their clones had their very chakra drained from them forming a medium sized ball in Cerino's outstretched palm. It was then they noticed his eyes.

'He has a doujutsu. Shit this could be bad if he can do that as many times as he wants we are severely outnumbered!' Zabuza thought in amazement as he watched his clones turn into puddles.

"Shit!" The rock-nin teen said before throwing a kunai at them and flashing through some very familiar hand signs. "Kage Kunai jutsu!" and one kunai became one hundred which he had hoped would cover their retreat. Key word is 'hoped'.

Quickly bringing the orb of chakra to bare Cerino stepped in front of the group before releasing it as a giant shockwave knocked all of the kunai off course. "Kushina take care of the jounin, Sasuke, Kiba get Haku, Cerino take care of the other rock-nin! I got Zabuza!" Kakashi shouted as they all moved to engage their targets.

Cerino and his opponent were engaging in a long-range battle after he tried to rush Cerino only receiving four deep gashes along his chest from Fenrir. 'WHAT THE FUCK! No matter what I do he always has a counter!' He thought as he called out his jutsu. "Water Style: Water Bullet jutsu!'

His response was. "Fire Style: Grand Fireball jutsu!" Now in most cases he would of won but he swiftly learned that Cerino's fire jutsu were stronger than others as he watched his water bullet turn to steam.

'He always seems to be one step ahead of me and with that doujutsu I am really out classed here!' He thought as he tried to think of a way to get out of the predicament he was in.

Kushina was doing very good at the beginning of her fight with the jounin. Emphasis on **was**. After knocking the jounin's own katana to the side effectively breaking through his guard and giving him a slash mark across his back. Then the jounin went on and summoned a larger than normal bear who effectively turned the tide with it's brute strength seeing as it was about as tall as a small shack.

While she was distracted by the bear after she dodge to the side as it charge the jounin rushed forward and swung his blade in a fatal course with her stomach. She was able to parry the strike but not without getting a rather deep gash in the side effectively slowing her down.

Cerino seeing her get slashed with his Go-ruden-manako. 'damn she is outnumbered. I can't help her without revealing certain jutsu's that I don't want. So how can I help her!' Cerino thought before glancing down at Fenrir. 'Unless…'

"Hey Fenrir!"

"**Yeah?" **Was his answer.

"Listen I got this punk you go and help Kushina with that summon okay!" Cerino said still staring down his opponent.

"**You sure? You know that would look suspicious and in your condition?"** Fenrir said looking at the still visible bandages through his cloaks open front.

"Fenrir you know I could take this punk on with my hand tied behind my back! But Kushina needs your help now. Do I have to mention that her son is on his way and I don't want to have to tell him his mother either died or got seriously injured during this fight. NOW GO!" Cerino ordered firing several chakra bullets at his opponent forcing him to jump back buying Fenrir time.

"**Ok cub." **Fenrir said racing to were he could smell Kushina and wet bear.

Kushina was contemplating how she would be able to get out of this predicament alive. 'I can't get to Kurenai and she wouldn't be in her element in this fight. Naruto ain't here yet and Hinata might be able to help but then again probably not she ain't ready for open combat yet.' Kushina thought desperately. That is until her answer came in the form of a white and black blur which quickly stopped at her side revealing Fenrir in all his glory.

"What are you doing here aren't you supposed to be protecting Cerino!?" Kushina yelled although having a bad feeling she already knew the answer.

"**Cerino sent me here to help you with this 'walking carpet'." **Fenrir retorted growling at his adversary hackles raised.

"But you know he is in no condition to fight properly!" Kushina said back. Although she was thankful for the help and consideration she didn't want it if it caused more harm to her already weak teammate.

"**Listen! I know Cerino better than you do! He can take care of himself. He was more worried about you than himself at the moment so he sent me as backup!" **Fenrir growled out tense as a spring board.

Seeing it was useless to argue she simple slipped into a defensive stance that didn't exert her already bleeding right abdomen. "Ok. I'll take your word but I still don't like it."

"**You don't got a choice. No lets do this!" **Fenrir said before bounding forward tackling the bear summon back Kushina hot on his heels.

While this was going on Cerino was fighting his opponent who seeing that his main defense was gone charged in and engaged him with his katana only to be stopped in his tracks by Cerino's own katana.

'Damn! Maybe this wasn't such a good idea! I am being ran into the ground here!' The genin thought as his strike was easily parried by his opponent. But he didn't see Cerino flick his wrist causing a kunai to appear in his hand. Striking with his new weapon Cerino caught him by surprise driving the kunai into his chest cavity.

The genin had a shocked look on his face as he stared at the kunai. Looking up he saw Cerino's cold eyes staring back as he raised his katana and swung it at his neck and he knew no more.

Cerino pulled the kunai out of the dead genin's chest as his head rolled across the bridge splattering blood and grey matter everywhere.

Kushina flicked her wrist deflecting her opponents katana before she drove hers straight through his chest severing his heart and causing him to go limp. Fenrir had proven himself more useful than even she had imagined. Keeping the bear busy with his smaller size and faster attacks Fenrir had easily driven the bear away from Kushina allowing her to reengage her target leading up to her killing blow.

Turning to assist Cerino with his opponent only to catch the last moments of his fight before he decapitated his opponent. She had seen him fight with his blade before and had long ago summarized that his style seemed to be of a balance of finesse and grace with it's own measure of brutality. This was just the first time she had seen it in a proper fight…she wasn't far off either.

Turning to help to others with their fights only to see them coming to a close. Kakashi had caught Zabuza with his nin-dogs ready to finish him off with a 'Chidori' thus explaining why the mist was thinning. Naruto appeared to have arrived and helped Kiba and Sasuke break out of Haku's Crystal Ice Mirrors somehow with the help of Shino.

Cerino was walking back to the main group clutching his side seeing as one of his larger wounds had reopened due to his fight when he twisted it wrong. He didn't know why but something in his stomach told him to keep his doujutsu activated and that he was missing something. Searching around the bridge frantically for what he missed. He found it in a split second.

"KAKASHI STOP!"

Kakashi's electrified hand stopped just inches from Haku's chest. Turning to glance at Cerino with both his eyes wide. They were wide cause he listened. Why did he stop? He just heard the voice and felt as if it was the Hokage or something of the like. For a second it felt like when the Fourth had given him an order back in the good old day's.

Cerino's only answer was to point across the bridge. Zabuza getting the message thinned the mist even more. Their was Gato and a small army of bandits standing their looking all smug.

"Well looks like we've been discovered. And only a moment too soon I wanted to hear Zabuza's innards being splashed all over this bridge!" Gato said still grinning.

"You motherfucker! You were never intending to pay us were you!" Zabuza shouted back ready to rip him in halve with his bare hands seeing that Kakashi had commanded his nin-dogs to let him go already seeing were this was going.

"Of course not! It's much cheaper to pay a ninja for a job and then kill him in his sleep! Believe it or not your not cheap!" Gato said still looking smug and feeling high and mighty.

"Well Zabuza it looks like I was right. This isn't a fight for us." Haku said sweating bullets seeing as one split second later and she would have been dead.

Zabuza set a steadying hand on her back to keep her from falling seeing that her legs were shaking. Not everyday you come within an inch of your life. Quiet literally at that. (I've been their TWICE!)

The group knew that they were out numbered and with their main fighters already tired they knew they had to think of something and they had to think of it NOW!

Cerino was only standing their staring at them his mind going into overdrive already think up several different ways out of their predicament but only a few being favorable seeing as the others would reveal too much.

'I might as well play off what I have already shown.' He concluded as he began to prepare for their charge.

"Now then seeing that we haven't got anything else to say how about we get this started. Then go ahead and level the village seeing as it is the source of this…bridge. And remember to leave the woman!" Gato said eying Kushina seeing as she was closest.

'Ah hell no he just didn't eye ball me!' Kushina thought with a tick mark above her head.

"I'LL MOTHERFUCKING CASTRATE HIM!" Naruto shouted as he was being held back by Kiba

Cerino simply slipped his left foot behind him to act and a brace and used his chakra to stick to the bridge seeing as Kushina was slightly behind him. Raising his hand he charged up a chakra bullet. Only this one was bigger that the rest which caught everyone's attention. They stood frozen as he brought it to bare with the army of bandits his face was blank.

The next few moments could only be described as a massacre. Cerino's new chakra bullets seemed to not simply stop after contact but keep going like a freight train not only launching the bandits back but also slicing them to ribbons. Firing of chakra bullet after chakra bullet soon the entire army was nothing but a pile of bodies/limbs and blood splattered across the bride. The only thing left was Gato standing their looking ready to piss himself as Cerino slow stalked towards him.

"Now there is only one thing I hate more than bloodthirsty tyrants like you and that is traitors. But you set bar high for all of the spineless, weaklings who use their money to get what they want." Cerino ranted his blade already drawn as Gato began to back up from him only to find that he was already at the edge of the bridge.

"Wait WAIT! What do you want! Money?! Take it all!? Power?! I got connections! Woman?! Take them all!" Gato said trying to buy his way out.

Cerino's only response was to laugh. "Money?! I'm already rich with my clan vaults all together I could buy your empire several times over! Power?! I don't want it! I will earn it with blood, sweat, and tears. Woman?! I already have a girl! And none of your cheap hookers could ever out do her! Now…DIE YOU WILTHY WORM!" Gato was only able to let out a small girlish squeal as Cerino swung decapitating him. His head flew in a high arc out off the bridge and out of sight. Kicking Gato's still standing body off the bridge he turned around and walked back to the group who for the first time saw him actual **pissed**. And quiet frankly they never wanted to see him pissed in the first place.

Now they could only stare chibi style as he marched across the bridge only stopping to motion Fenrir to follow him. As he walked off the bridge him met the villagers standing their armed with crude weapons ranging from wooden mallets to pitchforks. At their head was Inari and Tsunami. Cerino only smirked slightly before patting him on the head before continuing on towards Tazuna's house.

When the group got to the battle site they all began to shower Tazuna with questions. All following the same principle. "What happened to Gato and his army?" Zabuza only shook his head and pointed at the still retreating back of one Cerino Delgada.

**-end-**

I originally was going to continue on with this a little further but I decided not to. WHEW! This is officially the LONGEST chapter I have ever wrote. 38 PAGES!!! DAMN! Sorry it took so long but there is good news! I am getting a computer in my room and I already got a flash drive so my chapters hopefully will be coming a little quicker now so rejoice! And for readers of 'Lucario' hope for a chapter for that in the next month or so seeing as I am unsure when I'm getting the computer.

Until next time:

Cerino the Ultimate Ninja


	3. The Chunnin Exams Begin!

Hello and sorry for the wait for this chapter. I am so psyched to get this chapter up cause this is where all the action starts. Good news is I finally got the computer into my room so chapters might be coming in faster now. But unlike some I only type when I feel like it so I ain't making promises but I will try and devote some time to type although I will stop if it seems forced, but I will aim for AT LEAST one chapter a story per month seeing as I will probably only have two stories going at once. Anyway I have nothing to say so enjoy. And FYI there will be some minor plot developments in this chapter and some major ones in the next. And I think I am going to start shortening the chapters so that I can get them out faster.

"**Speaking"**

'_**Thoughts'**_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

'_**Demon/Summon thoughts'**_

**Chapter 3: The Chuunin Exams begin **

**-Konoha council chambers-**

"And seeing that you have a bloodline and are the only wielder of the bloodline Go-Ruden-Manako loyal to Konoha you are eligible to for the C-R-A. (Clan Restoration Act-and for those people who don't understand it means you can have multiple wives so you can have more children with the bloodline although the wives are usually picked out for you.) Do you wish to use the C-R-A?" Sarutobi droned on to the black-clad figure in front of him already knowing the answer.

"I refuse." Cerino Delgada answered stoically staring blankly at Sarutobi. There was an immediate uproar of shouts as answer mainly from the civilian council.

"You dare refuse such a generous offer from us!" Screeched one Haruna Haruno one of the civilian council.

Cerino immediately snapped his stoic glare at her causing her to visibly flinch. "If I'm not mistaken this is a military matter not a civilian matter. So you are just here as spectators and thus have no say in the matter so hold you tongue before I am forced to remove it!"

"What did you say you little brat!" Haruna screeched back.

"Haruna shut up or I will be forced to 'ask' you to leave!" Sarutobi said effectively shutting up the civilian council. "Seeing as he ain't of legal age he can't be a part of the council but that does warrant him a seat! That alone gives him a higher standing in the council than any of the civilian council members so you would do well to not oppose him!" Haruna although red in the face didn't retaliate.

"Now now there is no need for such violent words. Although I do wonder why you would refuse such a generous offer made by this council. It can only benefit your clan." Said an old war hawk known as Danzo.

"I see things differently than you and thus I will keep the reason I refuse silent seeing as you couldn't even begin to comprehend the first three sentences." Cerino calmly stated while taking a jab at Danzo who visibly reddened.

"I would learn to respect my elders if I was in your shoes young man. I was also a shinobi and thus know enough to handle you and I can do anything you can do." Danzo retorted. Off to the side Kushina, Tsume, and most of the council where taking interest in the verbal spar.

"Oh yeah…clap." Cerino said with a smirk as Danzo began to compete with a tomato. Most of the council began to snicker.

"That is enough. Cerino would you please come by my office tomorrow morning for we have to discuss certain…'issues'." Sarutobi interrupted.

"Gotcha!" Cerino said turning to leave. "Oh…and one more thing!" Cerino halted in the doorway. "The ANBU operative Nii Yugito is under the protection of my clan so if any form of threat towards her, and I don't care if you just look at her wrong. Any such offenses will force me to call in…heh… 'Old Debts'." He said glaring at each on of the council members meaning that he was serious.

Sarutobi was as white as a sheet of paper. "Now Cerino you know what that would do to Konoha and we have already discussed this."

"I know and quiet frankly. I. Don't. Care. Your lucky I dropped them in the first place, but if you cross me I swear to God I will 'check in' on those debts…tenfold. Do I need to remind you of the valuable information I gave you upon my arrival? And don't forget what is at stake here." He then turned and walked out of the council chambers.

The chamber was immediately filled with the din of voices as they began to discuss the meeting. But one voice rang out above the rest. "Sarutobi what did he mean by 'old depts'?" Shukaku Nara asked.

Sarutobi just sighed and replied. "You don't want to know but I will tell you this. You will find out eventually and I can tell you no matter what you do he can and will cash it in if it comes to that. My advice to you is to just stay out of his way."

A while later the rest of the council began to file out of the chamber. "What do you think Cerino was talking about?" Tsume asked Kushina as they began to walk back towards the clan district.

"Don't know. But it definitely scared Sarutobi so I say we just stay on his good side." Kushina answered thoughtfully.

"Yeah I guess so." Tsume replied.

**-The Delgada Estate-**

"Yugito!" Cerino called as he entered the Estate.

"Hey Cerino your back. I just got finished showing Zabuza and Haku around so they are getting situated into their rooms!" Yugito said practically bouncing into the room.

"Yeah well I just got done putting the council in their place so everything should be fine. Nothing more to do then to just wait for the chunnin exams to start." Cerino said flopping down on one of the couches in the living room Yugito sitting next to him.

"…Cerino?" Yugito said nervously biting her lower lip.

"Yeah?" Cerino asked knowing that when Yugito bit her lip it meant that it was important.

"…Cerino…I'm ready." She said gaining confidence in the end.

Something flashed in Cerino's slitted eyes…was it pity, worry? "Sis you know you don't have to yet. It can wait until after this is all over." Cerino answered genuinely worried.

"That's just it Cerino!" Yugito all but shouted. "This is the deep breath before the plunge and I want to be able to make myself useful when the shit hit's the fan!" She apparently had wanted to say this for a while. "Back when we first arrived you took out all your missing-nin by yourself cause you knew I could barely lift a kunai even after you ran twice as far as me with even less rest! I want to be able to help too! You did it in the middle of a battle and you had no time to rest! But it won't be like that for me! I'll have you their and I won't have to worry about fighting right after so lets get this over while we can"

Cerino was silent for a good minute. He then sighed. "Alright. You win. We will do it tonight. I'll go get the seals ready." He said as he headed off to the far side of the compound.

**-the next day-**

Cerino entered Sarutobi's office as the light filtered in from the window. "Ah Cerino! How good of you to come. Sit down we need to talk." Sarutobi said noticing the dark bags under Cerino's eyes.

"Alright." Cerino said as he sat down in front of Sarutobi silently. "So what is this all about?"

"First I would like to ask you if what you said about the debt in the council chambers was true?"

"Damn straight they were!" Cerino said before seeing Sarutobi about to object he silenced him with a look that clearly said 'theirs more'. "Look if Orochimaru does manage to mark Sasuke it would be in the villages best interest if I do go through with it…or at least that half of it."

Sarutobi sighed silently before taking another puff out of his pipe. "I guess your right. But what about the other half of the 'debt'?"

"I will only cash it in if they give me reason to." Cerino promised. "Was that all?"

"Yes that was all. You may go to your team meeting." Sarutobi answered as he continued to shuffle through his paperwork.

"Good cause I got a proposition for you." Cerino said as Sarutobi glanced back up at him.

"I am about to propose an idea that might seem risky and idiotic but in fact will benefit us both, and in return I will give you the answer on how to defeat your…'sworn enemy'?" Cerino said glancing at the mountain of paperwork in-between him and almost an instant Sarutobi was kneeling in front of him anime style. "PLEASE! OH GOD PLEASE TELL ME!"

Although a little creeped out Cerino decided to give him the answer. "Two words my senile old friend 'Kage Bunshin'."

Next thing Cerino knew Sarutobi was banging his head of the wall muttering 'stupid, stupid, stupid, so that's how he did it.'

"And what of this 'proposition' you spoke of?" Sarutobi said after he finally got seated.

"Well…"

**-ten minutes later-**

"Well I have to admit it does sound crazy but considering its you I will arrange for it to happen, but I suggest you head off to your team meeting seeing as you are already 15 minutes late." Sarutobi said while a trio of clones worked behind him.

"Alright see you later." Cerino said as he walked out the door. "Oh and by the way…" He called back in the doorway. "Yugito won't be able to perform her ANBU duties for the next month so you better cook up a story for her."

"Alright I'll get started on that shortly." Sarutobi said with a curious look but knew better than to ask as he pulled out his favorite 'novel'.

**-training ground seven-**

As Cerino entered the area it became evident even from a distance that there was more than 4 people their. As he drew closer he recognized Teams 8, and 10 there sitting and what appeared to be talking.

Hey Cerino! About time you got here we were about to leave without you!" Naruto called out as he caught sight of the black-clad enigma as many called him now a day.

"Yeah yeah me and Sarutobi had to discuss some things! What's going on?" Cerino replied as he drew nearer.

"Well me and the other sensei's thought it would be a good idea to get you all together for a team meet up. You know…to talk about what's happened in the past couple months." Kushina answered with a grin as she stood up with the others. "We were going to head to a nice barbeque restaurant but got caught up waiting for you so lets go."

Soon later they entered the restaurant and threw a few table together and began to discuss things such as training, missions, boys, training, girls, new moves, boys, training, and girls were a few of the topics discussed. Very soon the discussion got to scars, and soon after Kiba showed them the scar on his back from his first Gatsuuga as he compared it to one of Naruto's from when he was training with his mother in the art of the sword across his chest.

"Hey Cerino wear did you get those scars across you face?" Kiba asked.

Cerino smirked before answering. "A bear. One of the Tsuchikages specially trained ones at that!"

Everyone could just stare in amazement. "You actually managed to take one of the Tsuchikages war bears?" Kakashi said as he remembered coming across some of them during the war.

"Yeah…well I guess you could say that. Apparently a group of rock-nin went rogue and was able to take on with them. They fled and eventually made it to my home nation and the Tsuchikage posted a special mission to either recapture it or kill it. My squad and several others joined up and tracked them down. The nin separated the rest of my squad and I was stuck with the bear. I guess it finally got tired of the jabs I kept giving it with my spear to it charged and rammed me to the ground.

Dam thing nearly took my face off, but I was able to get my spear dug into the ground in time. Caught it right in the chest and the bears weight did the rest, but it slid far enough down the shaft to take a swipe at me. I barely fell back in time!" Cerino answered running his fingers down his face along the scars most likely remembering the fight. "I couldn't see straight for a week!"

"That's very impressive although I bet the Tsuchikage wasn't happy about losing one of his prized bears." Kakashi said with an eye-smile.

"Yeah he cut the amount of the payment in half for compensation for the squads 'stupidity'! Not to mention his once thirty bears is now at about 5 or 6!" Cerino answered with a grin.

"Yeah well I think we all now that the Tsuchikage is an asshole!" Kushina said as they all enjoyed a good laugh.

A couple hours later the teams split up and headed to the respective training grounds. "Well I hope you guys enjoyed that! Now I have something very important to tell you all." Kushina said as she got serious or as Naruto liked to call it her 'sensei-mode.'

"The chuunin exams will be held in about a month-and-a-half so we will be cutting back on the missions to push in some extra training so be ready tomorrow to be pushed to your limits." She said and she and Naruto headed home.

Later on that night Cerino went to bed with only one thought going through his head. 'And so it begins.'

**-two weeks before the exams-**

"Well there couldn't have been a more sorry ass day for the weather to pick to drop a surprise shower on them." Tsume said as Teams 7, 8, and 10 were meeting up discussing what to do as the genin stood around and talked.

"We can't train in this weather we would catch a cold for sure." Kurenai said as she stared out the window as the rain pounded against the window in a relentless mission to soak everything and every one caught in it.

"We could always train in one of the clan houses." Kakashi said as he continued to read his 'book'.

"I don't think my compound's training dojo is big enough for it though, and neither is Tsume's. Even if we put two teams per compound there wouldn't be enough room." Kushina said arms crossed thinking on what could be done.

"Yeah it looks like we are going to have to call off training for the day." Tsume said looking disappointed. She and Hana would sometimes join Team 7 for their training and this was one of the few days Hana could actually come.

"I think mine could do the job." Cerino said popping up out of no-where like usual. You would think with wearing combat boots it would be impossible for him to sneak up on you…guess again.

"Really?" Kakashi said looking over at him.

"Come see for yourself." Cerino said as he exited the tower with the rest of them at a signal from the jounin.

Cerino lead them though Konoha at a fast pace jumping from rooftop to rooftop crossing a few jounin, chuunin, and ANBU along the way seeing as the rooftops were like the shinobi's highway.

Very soon they stopped in front of a clan compounds main gate. Which Cerino opened by placing his hand on it and sending a burst of chakra through it making many intricate and complicated seals appear. Without question they crossed the wet yard and entered the main compound.

"Yo! Yugito!" Cerino called as he entered the house continuing on into what looked like the living room. A rather large living room at that.

Yugito was reclining on the sofa in her pajama's looking rather ruffled and tired. "Hey Cerino. Didn't expect you back so soon." Yugito said in a tired voice not noticing the people looking around in the doorway.

Cerino's home was surprisingly clean and well kept. On the opposite wall was a rather large bookcase crammed to the limit with its share of books. Several of the books were scattered around the coffee table and some of them were on Yugito's lap. "Yeah but as I'm sure you've noticed there was a freak thunderstorm and I offered the dojo for them to train in." Cerino replied kneeling down beside here.

"Oh." Yugito said noticing the group of ninja in the doorway some focused on her others still glancing around. "Well Haku and Zabuza are already in there for the day so don't be surprised if Zabuza challenges you to another spar." Yugito said with a weak smile.

"Don't worry about me, but on another note is their anything I can get you?" Cerino said earnestly.

"One of your milkshakes and a couple extra pillows would be nice." Yugito said with another smile.

"Coming right up you just rest." Cerino said before turning to the group. "You guys can dry off in here theirs some towels in the cabinet their." He then left the room.

As suggested they dried off and then sat down on some of the many couches and armchairs in the room.

"So your Yugito. Cerino's mentioned you from time to time." Kushina said with a greeting smile.

"Yeah well me and him arrived here together and we…well **he** was able to buy this place and furnish it and this is were we've been since." Yugito answered with a smile in return.

"You sick?" Kurenai asked taking note of her state.

"Yeah. Came down with the flu or something about 3 days ago and I haven't been able to shake it off yet." Yugito answered leaning back looking even more tired.

"Cerino seems to be taking good care of you." Hinata said still looking around.

"Yeah he is. I swear he might be a work-o-holic but when someone close to him is hurt or in my case sick he drops everything and seems to be able to always make time to take care of us." Yugito said sighing.

"Seems to be quiet the family man." Tsume said from he spot next to Kushina.

"Yeah you should have seen him when he came and got me! He nearly killed himself getting here traveling through the nights and taking very few rests. I nearly had to knock him out to convince him to rest that night, but he was right…the people who were chasing him caught up with him that night and attacked my house. Luckily he anticipated that and sealed all of my stuff and we were out before they even made it inside." Yugito said.

'_He must have told her not to disclose any vital information seeing as she is also talking cryptically._' Kushina thought as she filed the 'for now' useless information away.

"So you guys came here…all the way from Kumo?" Hana asked now getting interested in the conversation.

"Yeah…it wasn't easy either." Yugito answered with another sigh. "It was so nice to be able to sleep in an actual bed. Heh Cerino was so on edge I was afraid I was going to have to tranquilize him to get him to relax."

"Yeah and for good reason!" Cerino said as he entered the room again with several pillows under one arm and a large glass of what they guessed with a milkshake.

"Yeah well you need to loosen up and enjoy yourself from time to time." Yugito said as she accepted the glass and helped him arrange the pillows.

"Maybe later, but now I got to go and show these guys the dojo and most likely have another kenjutsu spar with Zabuza." Cerino said with one of his wolfish grins.

"Well don't hurt him like you did a couple weeks ago." Yugito said still smirking.

"Yeah yeah but remember he asked for it!" Cerino said with a grin.

And so Cerino led the group through the many halls of the house seemingly towards the far side of the compound. "And here we are!" Cerino said as they came to a sliding panel.

"Cool lets see how big this place is!" Naruto exclaimed as he slid it open only to be dumbstruck on what was on the other-side. They were standing in the entrance to what looked to be a storehouse or something. Although it was empty it was dark damp. "This is your dojo." Naruto said with a sweat drop.

"Naruto…remember this when you are in my house 'nothing is what it seems.'" Cerino said pinching the bridge of his nose as he slid the panel closed. Once closed he drew a kunai and sliced the palm of his hand wide open surprising them as it began to bleed heavily.

He swiped his hand across the door and once again an intricate set of seals appeared across the panel and at once they're a din of metal on metal. Removing his hand from the door showed them that the gash across his palm was quickly healing bathed in an emerald green glow. Opening the door for them Cerino revealed a bright-lit room that could easily fit the teams present and several others with two familiar figures in the center of what appeared to be one of the many training rings.

Kakashi's first thought was that this would definitely be Gai's students Tenten's paradise if she ever had one. Spreading across the walls was every type of weapon imaginable. From maces to scythe's, beautiful zanbatou's to daggers they covered three of the four walls. As they entered the room Zabuza and Haku noticed them. "Aren't you a little early?" Zabuza said as he leaned on his sword.

"Well because of the freak thunderstorm outside I have offered the dojo for the teams to train so you are going to have to deal with it." Cerino said as he walked up to the duo.

"As long as they don't get in our way." Zabuza responded glancing at the group.

"Hey guys!" Haku said cheerfully slightly sweaty from her previous spar.

"Hey Haku." Hinata answered as the rest of the group began to greet them.

"Well…now that the politics are out of the way how bout a rematch?" Zabuza stated not really making it sound like a request.

Cerino just sighed. "I guess I have no choice. What's the score…31 to 0?"

"30 TO 0 CAUSE YOU TRIPPED ME DURING THAT MATCH A COUPLE WEEKS AGO!" Zabuza yelled clearly embarrassed.

"Alls fair in the shinobi world but ok fine 30 to 0, and I take it that 'kenjutsu only' rule is still in effect?" Cerino said lazily as he stretched.

"Of course it is!" Zabuza said doing his impersonation of Iruka's Big Headed jutsu.

"Fine fine." Cerino yawned out as he went over to the section of the wall dedicated to zanbatou's.

He pulled down a double-edged zanbatou that was colored black and white. The blade was about the same length as Zabuza's zanbatou but was easily about twice as wide. The whole thing was pitch black except for two pure white striped going down the blade about halfway between the edge and the center of the blade. Along this white strip was carved intricate seals and runes that were colored black to stand out. Both sides of the blade were identical and the hilt was a pole about the size of Zabuza's hilt except at the edge of it was an outward facing half-moon arc. Cerino hefted it up as if it weighed nothing.

Stepping back into the ring Cerino simply rested the hilt of the sword on his shoulder. "Kushina if you would please start the match?" Cerino asked politely while staring down Zabuza.

"Ok…" Kushina said obviously nervous as she raised her hand ready to start the match.

"I'd step a little farther back if I was you." Haku said to the remaining group as she joined them. "They usually only stay in the ring for the first half of the fight." She answered seeing their curious looks.

Getting the picture the rest of the group backed up against the wall as Kushina began the match. "START!" She yelled throwing her arm down and leaping back to join them against the wall.

Zabuza immediately leapt forward swinging his blade left horizontally. Cerino met him with his own identical swing. Both swords clashed and continued on before Zabuza swung right and Cerino once again copied him and the blades met once again in mid-air before continuing on their course. Zabuza once again swung left and once again Cerino copied him with the same results, but Cerino let his blade continue on spinning on the spot before delivering a much stronger leftward swing to Zabuza who barely had time to block.

Zabuza was knocked off-balance by the force of the blow and Cerino capitalized on this as he began his assault forcing Zabuza to try every move in the book to either block or evade the strikes which ranged from lightning-quick strikes to stronger yet slower swings…but not that much slower.

The group which had been forgotten could only stare in awe at how Cerino quickly forced one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist on the defensive and kept the pressure on assuring that Zabuza didn't have time to strike back only block. Any of the group who knew anything about the art of kenjutsu could easily see how skilled Cerino was now that he was going all-out against Zabuza…lucky him.

Cerino brought down his blade in a devastating hammer-blow that luckily Zabuza was able to side step causing the blade to be imbedded in the floor, but before Zabuza could finally strike back Cerino spun keeping a-hold of the hilt of his sword and delivered a quick straight kick to Zabuza's stomach causing him to stumble back. Retching the blade from the floor Cerino finished his rotation by bringing his sword down diagonally. Zabuza seeing this was barely able to bring his blade up in time.

The blades clanged together loudly but due to Zabuza not being able to fix his footing his blade was forced downward along the path of Cerino's blade and flung from his hands as it skidded across the floor banging against the wall. Reversing his grip Cerino brought the half-moon ark at the edge of his sword up and with force shoved Zabuza back into the wall that he had forced his to pinning him by the neck by imbedding the ark in the wall.

There was a silent pause as both combatants glared at each other Zabuza a little higher than Cerino seeing as how Cerino had him lifted up of his feet. "NOW it's 31 to 0!" Cerino said triumphantly and he released Zabuza who crumbled to the floor coughing and hacking.

"You kicked me!" He wheezed out as Cerino reset the zanbatou from where he got it.

"But I still had my hand on my sword so that counts as a kenjutsu move." Cerino said with a smirk as he lifted up Zabuza's sword and throwing it back to the owner.

"So did you when you tripped me!" Zabuza retorted as he stood back up trying to salvage some pride by not rubbing his neck.

"Fine then it's 32 to 0." Cerino said as he stretched.

Zabuza only face planted before being drug off by Haku before he could retaliate. Cerino sighed before turning back to the still gawking group. "What?" Cerino recited his seemingly favorite word.

"Well that was…impressive." Kakashi said as they began to split up the groups.

"Well after that 'display' I guess we are all amped to get started so lets start with the beginning exercises!" Kushina said as they're group Tsume and Hana included began they're warm-ups.

After they got those done they began the individual exercises that targeted the individuals weaknesses. After getting those done for the day they moved on to the main course of training which was individual projects, or training the genin chose for themselves.

As Tsume helped Kiba with his idea of improving the Gatsuuga and Hana helped Hinata with her chakra expansion exercises and improving her kaiten, but before they could begin Cerino called them over. "I got something that might interest you guys!" Cerino said as he led them to the only wall that wasn't covered in weaponry. The wall was bare except for a lone panel that stood alone and untouched.

Opening the panel he entered a room that was small compared to the other room but what was inside it was surprising. Along the walls were racks and on these racks were scrolls. But not just any scrolls but jutsu scrolls and scrolls on the fundamentals of chakra and advanced chakra exercises.

"In this room are scrolls containing jutsu's from each element, jutsu's that my clan have copied, and my clans personal jutsu's and training exercises, and those are basic to advanced chakra exercise and techniques!" Cerino said pointing to a rack labeled 'chakra'. "Now those scrolls." Cerino said as he pointed to a rack embroidered with his clan symbol. The others could only stare in astonishment

"Are my clans personal jutsu's and exercises so don't bother, but those…" He said as he pointed to the racks embroidered with the kanji's for: fire, lightning, wind, earth, water and chakra. "You can use. Feel free to take some of them home with you, but I want them back before the beginning of the chuunin exams!" He finished with a smile.

"Cerino…" Kushina said glancing around with awe. "There must be enough scrolls here to cover the common elemental jutsu in their entirety!"(What she means are the regular jutsu's such a the fire dragon jutsu and grand fireball and the like.)

"There is…along with some that have been lost to the ages." Cerino said gesturing to the scrolls on each rack labeled 'forgotten'.

"Wow." Was all Naruto said staring at all the scrolls his mind going a mile a minute.

"Hey Naruto!" Cerino said walking over to the wind jutsu rack and pulling off the scrolls labeled intermediate, expert, and forgotten. "I would recommend these scrolls for Konoha doesn't have very many scrolls on wind jutsu's and they only really have the beginner stuff so here you go. And get this: in the forgotten scroll there is instructions on how to make wind blades!" Cerino said grinning.

No ones been able to make wind blades since your father recreated them but trust me his will be nothing compared to yours when you're done. You can also channel these through your sword so it can enhance your kenjutsu style also! I would give you some on sealing also but I dare say that your father's notes should be more than enough."

Naruto only nodded dumbly as Cerino dropped the three scrolls into his hands "Cerino…" Kushina began looking nervous. "We can't take these."

"Of course you can!" He said grinning ear to ear. "The reason I am not offering this room to the other teams is because just that. You're my teammates. It's my job to help you guys get through these exams just as it is you're to watch my back. Besides in a couple weeks time those teams out their will very well be your opponents."

"And Hinata!" He continued cutting Kushina off. "Here's some advance chakra control exercises that will also increase your chakra capacity. Keep on working like this and you will make an excellent medic-nin one day!" Cerino continued making Hinata blush as she accepted the scroll he offered her from the chakra rack.

"And you Kiba…" Cerino said causing Kiba to snap at attention. "These are some advance chakra techniques that you can use to increase your strength, speed, and agility, and of course you can look at it too Tsume, Hana!" He said taking another scroll off of the chakra rack. "I would also recommend you share those with the others on the team so you guys are on the same level in chakra."

"And Kushina…" Cerino said adopting a mellow tone as he moved to his clan's rack. "I believe this is yours." He said as he removed a scroll with a whirlpool design they had over-looked.

Kushina gasped immediately recognizing the scroll. "Where did you find it?" She said as she shakily accepted the scroll.

"I didn't find it, but my late Uncle Miroku did." Cerino said as he looked at Kushina's shocked face as she held the scroll as if it would fall apart if she squeezed to hard.

"Apparently he had friends in Whirlpool and when he heard of its downfall he left to investigate. He found this among the ruins, and the rest of his life was spent looking for a survivor of the Uzumaki clan.

"Now seeing as that's all I've got for now lets go before the other teams get suspicious." Cerino said leading them from the room Kushina lagging behind as she still held the scroll.

"Come-on Kushina we don't have much time before it's training is over so we need to head out." Cerino said noticing she hadn't moved from the spot. "Hey!" Cerino said a little louder placing a hand on her shoulder.

Kushina jumped at the contact but she tore her eyes from the scroll. "It's in perfect condition and you can began teaching your son the jutsu's your clan was famous for making." Cerino said in a softer tone. Although he was relatively surprised when he was pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank-you! Oh god thank-you so much!" Kushina whispered as she continued to hug him.

"I would normally say 'thank my uncle' but seeing as he isn't on this plane anymore I will accept your thanks on his behalf." Cerino said pulling out of the hug.

Kushina chuckled as she wiped her eyes. "I thought this scroll was lost forever, and I wouldn't be able to pass on my clans legacy to him like me and Minato always wanted to."

"Yeah well we need to get going so we can discuss this later." Cerino said exiting the room Kushina at his heels.

As they entered the dojo they noticed the other teams were preparing to leave also. Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata were gathered together along with Tsume discussing something in whispers.

"So…looks like your going to be busy." Cerino said smugly as they laughed nervously thinking of all the work they had ahead of them.

Out of the corner of his eye Cerino saw Sasuke glaring at the group from a far. He had observed them entering the separate room and had been eyeing Yugito when he left and entered the living room. And he didn't try to hide the heated glare he gave Cerino when he defeated Zabuza. Apparently he was smart enough not to try to activate his doujutsu in someone else's compound.

"Well…looks like its time to head out so everyone thank Cerino for his hospitality and we will leave." Kakashi said with one of his famous eye-smiles and as the genin muttered their thanks they began to make their way through the compound.

As they entered the living room once again they found Yugito had fallen asleep during her reading. "I believe you guys know the rest of the way so I will see you guys tomorrow, but right now I have to take care of her." Cerino said as he picked up the books around her and replaced them.

The group nodded and headed towards the door escorted by Haku and Zabuza. "So how have you guy's been doing here?" Tsume asked.

"We've been good. Cerino's given us some room and kept us fed. He even offered us the dojo for use after about a week of recovery so it's been good." Zabuza answered politely…well as politely as you can get with him.

"So you've been busy?" Naruto asked them as they got to the door and began to make their way across the grounds.

"You kidding Zabuza here is a slave driver and Cerino is just as bad. Get those two together and you almost immediately got a spar on your hands. Even though Zabuza here hasn't even been able to so much as nick him! And now we are at 32 to 0 with Zabuza being the guy in the landslide." Haku said with a gigantic sweat drop as the others obviously felt sorry for her.

"HE TRIPPED MY AND THEN HE KICKED ME!" Zabuza retorted as he tried to keep some dignity. But they ignored him as they headed to the gates and left heading towards their respective homes.

**-day of the beginning of the chuunin exams-**

Things had been going as planned this far. Everyone in Team 7 had been training long and hard on the abilities in the scrolls Cerino had given them. Soon they all knew all sorts of different ways to use their chakra to enhance their skills. That along with the intense chakra control exercises they learned they were all feeling confident about their chances in the exams.

Naruto had been training diligently with the wind scroll he was given and he soon was able to create perfect wind blades with his sword although he couldn't do them with simple swings of his arm like Cerino had demonstrated. Kushina had also begun teaching him some of the jutsu's from the Uzumaki clan scroll Cerino had given her. He's gotten the basics down but Kushina didn't want to let him learn the bigger ones since they would take too long to learn.

Hinata's chakra control went through the roof along with her proficiency with the Juuken stance allowing her to engage opponents in close combat and not worrying about getting in the way. Kiba learned some of the more advanced Inuzuka clan techniques from Tsume and Hana and was of course feeling very confident that he and his team were all going to become chuunin.

As the group went up the stairs they ran into a commotion on the second floor. As they neared the saw a small group of chuunin-hopefuls gathered around the door to room 301. "Something's not right here? We are only on the second floor room 301 should be one floor above us?" Hinata said studying the group.

"Yeah it is. I think it's a Genjutsu to test us and weed out the unqualified genin from the group." Kiba said studying the sign.

"Yeah your right lets keep quiet and continue on up." Naruto said as they mover on.

As they neared the 'real' exam room a fountain of water erupted in front of them taking the form of Kushina. "Good your all here! I wouldn't be able to let you continue if you all didn't show up!" She said grinning at her students. "Well this is it! Once you enter this door there will be no turning back. But know this! You all have made me proud." She continued beaming. "You've all worked so hard to get to this point, and I have the utmost confidence in you. So go in there and give it your all, and remember even if you don't make chuunin I will still be proud of you!" She then disappeared in another fountain of water leaving behind three proud genin and one regretful black-clad enigma in her wake.

"Well let's go!" Cerino said grinning.

Upon entering they found the other room jam-packed with genin from all over the elemental nations. Some turned and glared at the newcomers while other's remained indifferent. The group quickly found the other leaf genin from their year and joined them.

Soon after Team 8 walked in along with a bunch of other grumbling genin that the other genin recognized as the teams that fell for the Genjutsu. Another noticeable feature with the bruised cheek Sasuke was now sporting which Sakura was squabbling over like it was fatal.

"Hey Shino what's going on?" Chouji asked as the bug-user joined them looking relieved to get away from them.

"We got to the second floor and we noticed the Genjutsu you must have already seen. I suggested like you obviously did to go and leave the weaker genin behind, but Sasuke decided I was wrong and pointed it out to the other teams. Then as we continued on a member of Team 9 challenged Sasuke to a fight that he accepted. And then I had the distinct pleasure of watching the Uchiha have his 'ass' handed to him on a silver platter." Shino said in his ever-stoic drone.

While the other's stared amazed at Shino's…SHINO'S choice of words Sakura was about to screech only to be interrupted by a voice. "You might want to pipe down you are attracting some 'unwanted' attention."

Turning they saw a leaf genin a three or four older then them staring at them. Glancing around they noticed that he was right. Even more of the genin were glaring daggers at them. "Yeah and who are you." Kiba said challengingly.

"Easy their kid. My name is Kabuto and this is my seven time taking the exams." The newly dubbed Kabuto said scratching the back of his head looking embarrassed.

"Man you must have some luck." Naruto said looking sympathetic.

"Yeah last exams I injured my leg and couldn't continue, but if I have gotten anything out of this ordeal is a lot of information." He then brought out his stack of ninja cards and explained them to him. "Any requests?"

"Rock Lee and Cerino Delgada." Sasuke looking dead at Kabuto.

"Aw that's too bad you even know their names!" Kabuto said pulling out two cards. But before he could even get the first one revealed those two and his whole stack burst into flames.

"And if you were smart you wouldn't flaunt your information around. That and you would have a spare deck with you." Cerino said looking rather relaxed from his spot against the wall.

Kabuto simply blushed in shame and anger at him before he caught the glare Cerino was sending him. Kabuto swallowed hard before he began explaining the elemental nations and the chuunin exams.

"The only nation that doesn't participate in the exams is Shadow." Kabuto continued pushing his glasses along the bridge of his nose. "They prefer to be left alone. Though they have some of the strongest shinobi ever to be seen within their ranks. That combined with Organization XIII they are widely feared and every nation has tried to be their ally though they still remain neutral." Kabuto said before Shikimaru cut him off.

"What's this…'Organization XIII' I've never heard of it."

"Ah you haven't heard about the Organization…well no one really knows a lot about them but it is said that it is a group of shinobi in Shadow although their true numbers aren't known. But it is said that each and every one of them are on par with the legendary Sannin in their prime. It is even rumored that they have a fully-fledged demon amongst their numbers." Kabuto elaborated causing many of the listening genin to shiver at the thought of such power.

"**That's not true." **Yumi said from her spot in Naruto's mind.

'_What?_' Naruto responded as Kabuto continued his explanation on the other nations.

"**No demon would ally them selves with just one nation without good cause, and even then they would only protected them. They would never fight for them!" **Yumi said trying to figure out if it was just a rumor or true. **"If it is true my guess would be that it is actually a Jinchuuriki who can use their demons power, but again this is just a theory if the rumors true."** Yumi finished still in her thinking pose.

'_Alright I need to pay attention so love you._' Naruto said as he withdrew from the link.

"**Love you too."** Yumi said before the link closed.

Kabuto was just finishing up his explanation with the Sound nation. After he finished with his explanation a sound genin charged him obviously angered by his remark about how 'sound is a new country and shouldn't really be a threat.' But before the mummified shinobi could strike Kabuto with a large gauntlet on his arm Cerino appeared out of no-where grabbing the gauntlet. There was a second's pause before the gauntlet cracked and a second later shattered causing the mummified shinobi to stagger back clutching his arm.

"You asshole that was expensive!" Dosu shouted.

"Then you shouldn't get caught so easily." Cerino said glaring at him causing the ninja to back down returning to his other two male partners. (Yes MALE you will see why next chapter) Turning back to Kabuto he whispered to him. "You owe me one." Before returning to his post on the wall.

Soon after that the proctor Ibiki barged in and told them all to pick a card and sit in the assigned seat. Naruto ended up sitting beside Sasuke and one of Team 9's genin Tenten. Hinata was positioned behind Sakura and beside Ino who flashed her a nervous smile which she returned. Kiba sat behind Neji and two seats from Shino with Chouji directly to his right across the isle. Cerino was way out there with Rock Lee the closest to him sitting three rows in front of him Although he was sitting beside the only female of the sand team Temari who was eyeing him warily obviously seeing how strong he was.

As Ibiki was explain the 'name of the game' (or the rules) many of the leaf ninja began catching onto the hidden message he was sending by reading between the lines. When the test started they put their plans into action.

Hinata used her Byakugan to copy the answers from all around her. Kiba used Akamaru who was sitting on his head. Naruto cast one of the Uzumaki's basic clan jutsu's known as '**Uzumaki Style: Water Manipulation**' that he used to make himself a small mirror of water above him that he used to copy off those around him. Cerino activated his Go-Ruden-Manako in his right eye only and used that by resting his hand over his eye.

While Temari was answering the ones she knew waiting for Kankuro to get the answers to her she caught a glint of gold to her left. Glancing over to the ninja she was observing before she first though it was only a trick of the light she saw, but upon closer inspection she saw that his right eye had turned pure golden! He was covering it up by resting his head on his hand conveniently covering it up. She saw him turn towards her and she blushed at the wolfish grin he sent her way.

All around them teams were being picked off one by one. Some went silently while others had to be dragged out kicking. Ibiki seemed to be enjoying himself up at the front of the room with that sadistic grin plastered on his face. The sand genin with the coif and make-up on had to go to the bathroom, and returned shortly later dropping something on Temari's desk discreetly as he passes.

Just after team 17 got kicked out Ibiki called for silence. "Alright you maggots now there are some 'special' rules for the tenth question which you can choose to take or not!"

"What do you mean we can choose to take it or not." Kankuro said just as curious as the rest.

"You can choose whether to take it or not because if you get the question wrong you will not be able to participate in any chuunin exams hosted in Konoha ever again!" Ibiki said grinning if possible even more sadistically.

This brought an immediate uproar. "What do you mean never again there are people in here who have taken it before!" Shouted a nameless leaf genin.

"Well unlucky for you I wasn't proctor last time they were held here." Ibiki replied smugly.

Slowly yet surely most of the other genin began to drop out one by one. "Last call for anyone who still wants to drop out!" Ibiki shouted after the last team exited the room. When no one moved he grinned once again. "Well then the rest of you…pass!"

This once again got uproar as a response. And once again Ibiki silenced them as he explained the tenth question. But before he could finish a ball of cloth came crashing through the window unfurling to reveal a banner that read 'The sexy and single Anko Mitarashi: The Second Exam Proctor!' Many sweat drops appeared at the sight of the banner and the 'ahem' minimally clad jounin in front of them.

"Hey Ibiki I think you are losing your touch you let 28 teams pass!" Yelled the jounin in front of them to Ibiki who was just emerging from behind the banner.

"Your early." Was her reply.

"Yeah well you know how I like to make an entrance." Anko said in a sugary sweet voice before turning back to the genin. "Listen up maggots you are to report to Training Field 44 in 25 minutes if you are even one second later you are disqualified!" She yelled before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

After 25 hectic minutes for some every team stood in front of a gate. Behind it was some of the biggest and most ominous trees anyone has ever seen. "Welcome to Training Ground 44 or more commonly known as 'The Forest of Death'!" Anko yelled with an all to familiar sadistic grin.

"Now before you all enter the forest or even before I explain this part of the exam you are to sign these wavers stating that if you should be severely injured or most likely killed during the next parts of the exams Konoha won't be held responsible!" She said as she shoved a stack of papers into a genin's arms to be passed around.

As the teams signed the forms silently most of the teams couldn't help but keep on glancing at the ominous trees separated from them only by a chain-link fence. When all the forms were signed and handed back in Anko continued on to explain the exams.

"Now you will be given one of two scrolls one is the heaven scroll and the other is the earth scroll. Now your objective is to get you and your entire team meaning that you can't be missing a teammate. To the tower in the very center of the forest which is about five miles from here. But…there's a catch while you got to get to the tower with not only your scroll, but the other scroll as well. You may not open the scrolls at any time during the exam! The results will be…unpleasant! And you only have 5 days to do so!" Anko continued still grinning sadistically.

"So every team is your opponent but you most likely will not know what scroll they have until you 'defeat' them, and not only are the other teams your problem but the forest itself is a problem also. It is inhabited by many cute and deadly creature and plants so you are in a sense in enemy territory." Anko said gazing fondly at the forest disturbing many.

"Now which one of you maggots are Team 7 from Konoha!" She said turning back to the group. Team 7 reluctantly stepped forward. "Ok now since you are one man up than the other teams here one of you will be separated from the group with the other scroll so you don't need to fight the other teams but find you teammate before another team. Now you have five minutes to strategize before the beginning of the exams!" She yelled at the teams.

"Well this is a problem." Kiba said as Team 7 discussed their options. "When one of us are separated from the group they are easy targets."

"I'll go." Cerino volunteered.

"You sure man if I go me and Akamaru can high-tail it to the tower and get there and wait for you." Kiba argued.

"Do you have a doujutsu that can see everything in **over** a five mile radius?" Cerino countered with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah…well I guess you can go. What's the plan?" Naruto said clearly forgetting about Cerino's doujutsu.

"As Kiba put it only in reverse. You guys high-tail it to the tower and I will track you." Cerino said clearly not worried.

"And if we are attacked, or more importantly what if **you **are attacked?" Hinata expressed her worry for her teammate.

"If you are attacked you can fight them and take their scroll, or run. If I'm attacked I will try and evade and the like don't worry about me that's my problem." Cerino said as Anko called them over to receive their scrolls.

"Now which one of you maggots will be the loner?" Anko said addressing Team 7.

Cerino simply stepped forward calmly awaiting her orders. "Ok then you will be given a ten minute head start on the others so get in there!" She said opening the gate only for a black blur to whip by her and into the forest. The other chuunin lead the genin around the forest and to separate gates that would be opened in ten minutes as said.

Once a good ways into the forest Cerino activated his Go-Ruden-Manako. Searching for his targets he quickly found them and veered of to the left intent on cutting them off. Ten minutes later the teams were let into the forest and he second part of the chuunin exams had begun.

**-End-**

**Yes bad place to stop it but there had been an additional 10 pages that I deleted and moved to the next chapter so that one is about halfway done already. Now expected the next chapter of Lucario in about two or three week's cause that is about the same amount of time it took me to type this. I will probably be going back and updating the other chapters shortly also so don't be surprised. The same goes with Lucario I will probably take the time to go back and separate all of the dialog and such. And on another note-I would really like for you guys to actually start leaving reviews and comments instead of just adding the story to your favorites or what not. You'll find that I take constructive criticism quiet well. As long as it isn't about my grammar that I know sucks, but hey at least I am spelling at least halve way decently unlike some people whose stories I've read. So I know I am not the best but I am far from the worst. The reason I don't like people commenting on my grammar is cause I ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT AND I STATE IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Except for the one comment in Lucario about separating the dialog that you unmistakably noticed I took to heart. So without further ado. **

**See you next time!**

**Cerino the Ultimate Shinobi**


	4. The Prelims

Hello and welcome to the Fourth chapter of this story. I know it took my slightly longer than I said it would, but you guys can blame my sister for that. She let one of her friends 'borrow' my flash-drive without telling me! I actually had this done the day after I posted the new chapter for my other fic! So anyway just a heads up there are going to be some MAJOR plot developments in this chapter so keep a sharp eye out. And I've decided to start taking your thoughts into account so if you've got an idea for this story that you thing would be cool then tell me it in a review or a PM I don't care which, but they have to be placed AFTER the Chunnin Exams. And sorry if this chapter seems a little botched but there was some parts that I went back and redid. Speaking of which just like with Lucario I am going to go back and edit the other 3 chapters.

"**Speaking."**

'_**Thoughts**_**.'**

"**Demon Speech.**"

'_**Demon Thoughts**_.'

**Demonic Requiem **

**Chapter 4: The Forest and Prelims**

**-The Forest of Death-**

It had been about a half-hour since the beginning of the exams and Kabuto and his team had just got done taking care of their third weakling team and were racing off to the next phase of their plan. Kabuto couldn't help but begin to feel paranoid as he took notice of how quite the forest was. Glancing to his left he was about to ask Yoroi Akado a question when he noticed where Yoroi was seconds previous was gone! Glancing to his right he was about to ask Misumi Tsurugi where Yoroi was when he noticed he was gone too!

Coming to a complete stop Kabuto began to search for his missing teammate. He was about to turn around and backtrack when he noticed that his feet wouldn't move. Glancing around he noticed a figure clad in black seemingly materialize out of nowhere right in front of him. "Your teammates are dead." The figure said as Kabuto continued to struggle to move. "And you will soon follow them."

At that Kabuto stopped struggling and chuckled. "Apparently you don't know who you are messing with!" He said smugly before nearly passing out from the amount of killer intent being let of by the figure. The only sound heard by none was Kabuto's blood-curdling scream.

**-Deeper in the forest-**

Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba were doing as Cerino suggested and high-tailing it straight to the tower hoping that he wasn't far behind. Hinata's Byakugan combined with Naruto's and Kiba's keen senses made sure that they didn't run into anyone and evaded several traps and ambushes that had been set up.

They made it to the halfway point thanks to the traps and ambushes slowing them down after about 45 minutes. As they continued on Hinata took notice of something. "Guys Team 8 is fighting a grass-nin nearby!"

"Yeah and what's the problem?" Kiba asked clearly not caring.

"The grass-nin is on a giant snake and Shino seems to be in bad shape!" Hinata said bringing them all to a halt.

"Aw hell Sasuke an asshole and Sakura's a bitch but Shino is alright so we got to help them. They are our allies anyway." Naruto said.

"Ok ok fine but I am only doing in for Shino!" Kiba said as they changed course towards the fight.

A ways behind them Cerino took notice of their change of course. '_Their path has shifted. Why would that be?_' Cerino thought as he stopped and focused more chakra to his eyes. "AW FUCK!"

"Well this was a good idea!" Kiba said as he recovered from a blow the snake dealt him as he tried to get the grass-nin with a '**Tsuuga'** only to be swatted away with the tail. Akamaru was unconscious in his jacket having been knocked out by the snake shortly after the fight began. They had gotten here just as the creepy grass-nin BIT Sasuke on the neck apparently incapacitating him.

"Give me a second!" Naruto said focusing his chakra. The snake changed targets and attacked him only to be batted away by a Juuken strike from Hinata. Acting quickly Naruto molded his chakra and soon after swung his sword cleaving the giant serpents head off.

Orochimaru quickly jumped off and jumped off a tree branch above them rocketing towards the group intent on ending this pointless fight. But he didn't expect to be intercepted by a black blur in mid-air. "Hey guys am I late?" Cerino said grinning at them.

"Like hell you are!" Kiba said sarcastically.

"Listen guys get Team 8 out of here I will hold this guy off!" Cerino said turning back to his opponent blade drawn ready for anything.

"Alright but don't wait too long!" Naruto said jumping down and picking up the unconscious Sasuke and leaping off. Kiba supported the staggering Shino. As Hinata was about to drag Sakura off Cerino called out to her. "Hinata take these!" Turning she caught four scrolls. There was the Earth scroll they needed along with a spare and two heaven scrolls. She could only throw him a curios glance before leaping off Sakura in tow.

"And **you**! You sick pedophilic sorry ass excuse for a shinobi I only have 2 things to say to you! …**BURN BABY!**" Cerino said before letting loose a stream of golden flames effectively cutting off the grass-nin.

"Sorry I can't stick around to chat but I've gotta go. It's a shame…you would've made a perfect pair of boots for my girl!" Cerino shouted over the roar of the flames before chasing after his team.

**-With Naruto and the gang-**

Team 7 and Team 8 had just reached the tower and entered and Hinata quickly solved the riddle and opened the scrolls while Shino did the same with one Hinata gave them. Out of the smoke appeared Kushina and Kakashi. Both looked surprised to see each other but quickly got to the bottom of it. At the part about the snake summon they both gasped and began to lead them through the tower.

Leading them into a room that Sarutobi was using as an office they quickly explained that Orochimaru had managed to give Sasuke the curse seal! Acting quickly Sarutobi and Kakashi were able to completely suppress the seal seeing as Sasuke hadn't activated it and it was still battling Sasuke's will.

While this was going on Kushina began to check the others for injury. Shino had a broken arm and she called in some medic-nin who set the bone and healed it slightly before putting his arm in a sling telling him to go easy on it. The others were fine with Kiba being the worst after Shino with a bump on the head though they were all tired.

"Where's Cerino?" Kushina said noticing for the first time that her squad was one man short.

"He stayed behind to stall Orochimaru." Naruto said worriedly now that they knew what was going on.

"What!?!" Kushina yelled glancing out the window.

The others too looked out side to see a pillar of smoke escaping the canopy of the forest meaning that someone had set it on fire. Not a moment later Cerino came barging into the room looking a little winded but fine. Soon after Kushina began to question him on his fight.

"I was able to keep him talking long enough to mold my chakra and I set the forest of fire to separate us." Cerino explained.

"And Orochimaru?" Sarutobi asked.

"He fled as soon as I started the fire." Cerino said as he leaned back against the wall clearly not happy with the outcome.

It seemed that Teams 7 and 8 were the second and third teams to the tower shortly after the sand duo. Sasuke was sent to the medical ward unconscious from the sealing of his curse mark. Shino although advised to go with him stayed. Sakura wanted to go watch over her precious Uchiha but wasn't able to so after much whining and bitching went to her room followed soon later by Shino and Team 7 in need of much rest.

The following 4 days were spent training in certain aspects in one of the many private training areas in the tower. Naruto spent them training in forming his wind blades quicker and working on certain wind jutsu. Hinata worked on perfecting some family moves she had been working on learning. Namely perfecting her Kaiten. Kiba was practicing some advanced maneuvers with Akamaru not wanting a repeat of the fight with Orochimaru during the third half of the exams.

Cerino was practicing on some fire jutsu's he was trying to perfect along with some practice with his chakra bullets, but strangely after the second day he insisted on training only his Taijutsu and kenjutsu.

Shino joined them after explaining that Kakashi wouldn't help train him seeing as he was keeping watch over Sasuke. Kushina welcomed him warmly although silently promising to have a talk with Kakashi after they were done.

As they trained from sun up to sun down new teams were arriving every day. At Kushina's insist they took the fourth day off to rest so they would be in tip-top shape the next day. And soon enough every team who passes stood in front of the Hokage and many of Konoha's jounin and several ANBU of which Cerino was able to identify Yugito and Hana, and as spectators were Zabuza and Haku. But among the jounin and ANBU was all of the shinobi and elder council members! Including Mikoto who was acting as a representative to the Uchiha clan. Sarutobi explained that they were here to spectate the matches. And to the surprise of many to his right was Jiraiya of the Sannin! Jiraiya grinned to Kushina, Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba.

As the Hokage went on to explain the purpose of the chuunin exams. Then the jounin proctor Hayate Gekkou stepped forward and explained that there was too many team to go to the third exam so they needed to hold preliminaries.

Sasuke snorted at the sight of his mother as she waved at him and he just turned away. Mikoto looked sad at that and lost her smile opting to spectate.

Soon after that they were all staring up at a screen as it randomly choose the matches.

First up was Sakura vs. Ino-It was rather entertaining watching Ino mop the floor with Sakura's head.

Then there was Shino vs. Sasuke-Now there was a fight! But even with his arm broken Shino was able to beat Sasuke with a cleverly laid trap with his insects thus draining him of all of his chakra. Sasuke was not at all happy as he stormed back up the stairs with hardly any chakra. Sakura insisted that Shino cheated.

Next was Tenten vs. Temari the female sand-nin-Even though Tenten put up a good fight you can't win if you can't hit your target seeing as Temari kept on blowing her projectiles off course. Very soon Tenten was exhausted and was easy pickings for the skilled wind user…Naruto had fun watching the fight finally getting to see some his newly learned jutsu in action.

After that was Shikimaru vs. the female rock-nin which had been keeping a low profile during the exams-Shikimaru managed to capture her in his **'Shadow Possession Jutsu' **making her bang her head off the arena wall effectively knocking her out.

Then after that the first of Team 7 got some action. The screen stopped on 'Neji Hyuuga vs. Hinata Hyuuga' Many people's minds jumped to conclusions and though Neji would win but they were surprised when the matched started.

As Neji charged in expecting his cousin to be a pampered and delicate main branch weakling only to have half of his chakra points in his right arm to be closed in a flurry of movement. Quickly jumping back he stared in amazement as Hinata just stood there waiting for him to strike again.

"Don't think just because I am from the main branch that I am weak cousin, or you could end up getting seriously hurt and I would rather avoid that." Hinata answered honestly still waiting for him to advance.

Taking that as a jab at his ego he rushed forward once more only to have each of his palm strikes to be blocked and some countered. He stumbled back shakily as he coughed up blood and fought the nausea that followed. '_She isn't using the Juuken stance but an altered version of it!_' He realized as he charged again only this time more vigilantly.

This time they remained locked for almost a minute as they blocked and strove to strike the other but neither succeeded, as they broke apart again. Indeed Hinata was not using the Juuken stance but an altered version of it created by her mother. It relied more on flexibility and grace making it more suitable for women. Hinata was able to learn it from some scrolls her father gave her, and with some help from Kushina. Apparently her mother intended to teach it to her and Hanabi when they grew up but never got the chance.

Surprising many Hinata charged forward this time and began to give Neji the beating of a life time as she began to close even more of his chakra points. Every time Neji got ready to mount a counter-offensive Hinata struck again. Finally Hinata shouted "**Kaiten!**" and as the dome of chakra formed around her and threw Neji into the opposite wall she continued her assault.

"**Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!**" Many jaws dropped to the floor as Hinata closed every single last one of Neji's chakra points before delivering a devastating palm thrust to his chest knocking the wind out of him.

When Neji didn't make a move to stand up Hayate called the match and to everyone's surprises Hinata picked Neji up and carried him to the medic-nins before making her way back to her team smiling at Gai's and Lee's shouts of her 'flames of youth'.

Next came Naruto vs. a rock-nin named Kento Akane. Apparently one of his relatives were killed by Minato thus he was holding a grudge. When the match began Kento immediately fire a jutsu called '**Earth Style: Rock Burial Jutsu**' which sent a miniaturized rockslide at Naruto who easily dodged it by going airborne.

Flipping through hand signs Naruto quickly retaliated with a '**Wind Style:** **Great Breakthrough Jutsu**'

Kento blocked it with a handy little earth jutsu called '**Earth Style Wall**'spitting out mud that quickly formed into a wall protecting him from the powerful gust of wind.

Not deterred by this Naruto decided to get serious. Flipping through hand signs faster than anyone's eyes could follow Naruto called his move. "**Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu**!"

"What! There isn't a wind dragon jutsu!" Kakashi exclaimed only to be silenced along with many as Naruto expelled a giant cyclone of air that quickly took the shape of a dragon. Not even bothering to go around the dragon went right for the wall of mud. Temari was awed as the wall was sliced apart by the many wind blades the dragon was made out of. Barely getting out of there in time Kento was only glanced with one blade leaving a deep gash in his side that immediately began to bleed profusely.

"Kushina were exactly did Naruto learn that jutsu?" Kakashi asked staring in amazement at the destruction the dragon caused.

"Well…" Kushina began glancing at Cerino for the ok. Cerino simply shrugged before turning back to the fight. "…Cerino here gave our team some advanced scrolls on jutsu and apparently there once was a wind dragon, but it has long since been forgotten."

"But a jutsu of that power could easily be done wrong and could seriously harm Naruto if not done correctly!" Kakashi countered.

"Hah don't you think I already know that! But apparently you forgot that Naruto is just like his father! He took to Ninjutsu like a fish to water! So stop being a hypocrite…don't give me that look I know that you began to teach Sasuke the '**Chidori**' during our mission in Wave!" Kushina retorted harshly to Kakashi still apparently mad at him for his favorism of which she learned about shortly before Wave when that met Shino on the way to practice. After seeing that he hadn't stopped after she had confronted him. So told Shino and Sakura that if they ever wanted to they could join in on their training sessions. Shino took the offer instantly while Sakura simply snorted and said watching Sasuke train was better than 'hanging out' with losers.

While this was going on Sasuke was fuming at himself for not having enough chakra to activate his Sharingan to copy the jutsu that were being used before him. Now back to the fight. After seeing the destructive power of the dragon Kento got the idea that apparently his opponent was a Ninjutsu user so he was worthless at close range…boy was that a mistake. As he rushed in Naruto met him halfway. They then engaged each other in a fierce Taijutsu fight that quickly turned out to be a bad move on Kento's part. While Naruto took to Kenjutsu pretty quickly obviously getting it from his mother he was also best friend with the son of the patriarch of the best Taijutsu clan in Konoha.

After collecting a few new bruises and a split lip Kento pulled back and moved back to jutsu. **"Earth Style: Earth Dragon jutsu!"**

"**Wind Style: Wind Dragon jutsu!"** Naruto retaliated.

The two dragons slammed together and dissipated as the wind dragon shredded to the earth dragon apart. But Naruto wasn't idle while this was going on. The moment the jutsu's canceled out he named his next. **"Wind Scythe jutsu!"** Kento was caught in the cyclone and was ripped apart and when the jutsu was over he promptly passed out from blood loss.

"Winner Naruto Namikaze!" Hayate shouted. Naruto returned to the balcony greeted by many congratulations and praises from both his team and the other teams and surprisingly Kakashi as well.

The next match was Dosu Kinuta vs. Chouji: It was kind sad to see just how much Dosu relied on his melody arm; however, seeing as Cerino destroyed it Chouji flattened Dosu…literally shouting something like 'Chubbies Rule!' after he made a comment about his size.

Everyone watched as the screen flashed though names until it finally landed on…Kiba Inuzuka vs. Zaku Abumi. "Yahoo! Finally some action!" Kiba said to his companion as they made their way down to the arena ready to prove himself after seeing all those amazing matches.

"You two ready?" Hayate asked just like he did with all the others.

And like always he got a chorus of "Yes!"

"Ok…BEGIN!"

Zaku made the opening move with his signature attack. "**Slicing Sound Wave!**" Kiba was hit by the strong winds and tossed back and was barely able to regain his footing before Zaku sent another at him.

Leaping to the side Kiba narrowly dodged the attack. It was at this moment that Akamaru decided to make himself known by leaping up and attacking Zaku from his spot on the ground clearly forgotten.

"**Tsuuga!**" Kiba shouted as charged towards Zaku intending on capitalizing on the opening Akamaru gave him.

Dodging Akamaru Zaku retaliated. "**Slicing Sound Wave!**" The force of the wave pushed Kiba back and forcing him to cancel his attack.

With a bark Akamaru leapt at Zaku's exposed back only to be pushed back by another '**Sound Wave**'.

But in this motion Zaku left his back open. "**Tsuuga!**" Not being able to react in time Zaku received several angry gouges in his right arm.

Kiba landed near Akamaru just like he hoped. "Ok boy you ready to try out some of those moves we've been practicing?" An eager bark was his reply.

"Alright!" Akamaru hoped onto Kiba's back. "**Man Beast Clone!**" And Akamaru was the spitting image of the bestial Kiba.

"**Gatsuuga!**" And the two Kiba's were off.

"**Slicing Sound Wave!**"

But the two cyclones easily dodged the attack having seeing it several times already, and continued their assault. Within a second after Zaku's feeble defense the cyclones were baring down on his.

After receiving several new slashes Zaku was able to fend them off with a couple '**Sound Waves**'.

The two cyclones regained their bearing and tried something completely new. One leapt high into the air coming at Zaku from above while one of the Kiba's canceled their attack and engaged Zaku hand-to-hand.

The cyclone from above slammed down right behind Zaku and soon he was trying and failing to fend off two Kiba's. With a sudden spark of ingenuity Zaku slammed his hands into the ground and sent of a rather strong '**Sound Wave**' forcing the duo back.

But before they could recover fully Zaku let loose his strongest attack. "**Supersonic Slicing Wave!**" The two Kiba's were pushed back even farther and also received several deep gashed from the wind.

After it finally stopped there were two battered and tired Kiba's standing their panting. "Looks like we've got no choice but to try that move eh Akamaru." Panted the Kiba with a deep gouge under his left eye. His reply was a low growl from his counterpart.

Preparing their attack they locked hands and began to spin in a larger than normal '**Tsuuga**'.

"**Supersonic Sound Wave!**" Zaku yelled intent on stopping the giant cyclone.

The wave slammed into the Kiba's and their attack halted but continued to spin. They stayed suspended like that for several seconds before in a burst of strength they broke through to wave and charged straight for Zaku.

Zaku was torn apart and left bleeding profusely from the attack. After several seconds Zaku finally passed out from blood loss. "Winner Kiba Inuzuka!" Hayate called.

Kiba and Akamaru simply laid their exhausted and lightheaded from blood loss. Everyone waited for the medic-nins to carry them both off before the matches continued.

The Next match after that was Kankuro vs. another Rock nin-While no where near as exciting as Kiba's match it was still interesting seeing as Kankuro replaced himself with his own puppet and quickly finishing the match by incapacitating the Rock nin with his puppets.

The next match was easily one of the most exciting seeing as it was Gaara vs. Rock Lee-Everyone marveled at Lee's speed and agility and thought that he might actually win. But sadly he didn't and had to be rushed to the hospital after Gaara crushed his left arm and leg.

Everyone had to wait for fifteen our so minutes as the medic-nins cleaned up the mess and rushed Lee to the hospital. It was during this time that Kiba and Tenten returned from the infirmary. "Would Shinji Ishimura and Cerino Delgada come down for the final match?" Hayate said after they were ready to get under way.

The Cerino and the final sound-nin squared of each having their own thoughts. '_This is bad. I am at a severe disadvantage here_.' Cerino thought trying to think of a way out of this predicament.

"You two ready?"

"Yes!"

"Ok…begin!"

(I was actually debating weather or not to cut it off here but I figured you waited long enough for some answers so here you go!)

Shinji made the first move. "**Earth Style: Rock Burial Jutsu!**" And like with Kento a miniature rockslide charged towards Cerino. Leaping out of the way he attacked by throwing several kunai that seemed to just appear out of his cloak sleeve.

Deflecting these with ease with his own kunai Shinji was forced to leap back and Cerino landed with an axe-kick. Flipping through hand signs once more he announce his attack. "**Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!**"

'_Son of a Bitch!_' Cerino thought as gave a mighty leap dodged it as it tried to crush him and was sailing backwards high above the stands as the dragon began to get ready to pick him off from mid-air. '_He's a Ninjutsu user which puts me at a disadvantage cause he can attack from a range…my fire jutsu take up too much chakra so perhaps…ah to hell with it!_'

As the dragon charged at him ready to finish it Cerino raised his right hand as his left hand formed a half ram seal. Everyone stared in awe as a black orb formed and quickly grew to about the size of a beach ball. Cerino choose this time to name his attack. "**Shadow Meteor!**" The orb shot from his and upon impact with the dragon exploded rocking the arena as the dragon fell apart seeing as his head was blown off.

Everyone started on awe, as many have never seen a shadow style attack. '_How does he now a shadow attack unless…_' Kushina thought as many began to piece together what she just had. '…_He's from Land of Shadow!_'

Cerino had a determined look as he landed on the opposite side of the arena starring down his opponent who looked shocked at the attack. Shinji quickly composed himself and remembered his master's orders. '_He said not to underestimate him._'

"**Earth Clone!**" Shinji called out as about two-dozen clones made of earth formed and charged at Cerino as the original hanged back hoping to come up with a plan in light of this problem.

Cerino remained calm and drew his blade. As they neared Cerino let loose another shadow attack. "**Shadow Bolt!**" And what appeared to be a black bolt shot from his hands and hit one of the clone's chests. Everyone watched in fascination as the clone's chest seemed to dissolve revealing its hollowed center before dispersing back to mud.

Then the clones converged on him but he was in his element now! Side stepping an obvious right hook Cerino quickly delivered a kick to the back of it's knees breaking off it's leg before spinning to slice of another head. Another charged from his left and Cerino grabbed it by its face and lifted it off the ground with ease. "**Shadow's Grasp!**" With a jerk its face was crushed inwards in a blackish purple cloud of energy.

A clone attack Cerino who easily ran it through with his katana. Another clone moved to attack from behind this one armed with a halberd. It looked like the clone was going to actually stab Cerino before it froze in mid stab. In a blur the clone spun and chopped the head off a clone behind it surprising many. This action was repeated with many of the clones standing near or around Cerino some armed and others unarmed.

As the spectators looked closer many jaws hit the floor as they saw that Cerino's shadow was stretched and connected to the clones that just attacked. '_H-how h-he isn't a Nara!_' Shikaku thought as he watch in amazement as the clones formed a circle as the clones that weren't being controlled were surprised and confused. '_And further more it appears he's using the '__**Shadow Possession Jutsu**__' on multiple targets but he didn't have to move to control them._' The Nara clan leader calculated.

"Enough." Cerino said as he flashed though hand seals faster than any could follow. "**Shadow Style: Ensnaring Darkness!**" A thick black looking substance spread from were Cerino was standing until it covered the area around him and the clones. "This is the jutsu Jiraiya of the Sannin modified to create his own '**Swamp of the Underworld**´ technique only in that case he uses earth." Cerino explained as Shinji looked thunderstruck. (Think the darkness that swallows Riku in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 1.)

Many of the clones began to struggle to move but couldn't as the substance seemed to be holding them down. Flipping through a few more hand signs Cerino completed the jutsu. "**Shadow Style: Embracing Darkness!**" And with that a solid spike of the substance shot out from behind the clone and stabbed each clone where its heart would have been. He then said was a smirk. "Although he couldn't incorporate that part into his jutsu."

Now all the clones were destroyed and it just left him and Shinji as the black substance just seemed to evaporate without a trace. Cerino inwardly grimaced as a burning pain shot through his body. '_Damn…its already begun. Guess I over did it but I had no choice. Hopefully I can play this off and get in close and if not…_' At this Cerino did grimace. '_It going to get bad and real fast. Perhaps I can close off his tenkutsu but that's pushing it. Either my chakra will begin to tear apart my coils or I will just be teetering over the edge of that happening. Either way its not good for me._'

Cerino then took a deep breath and began to focus on slowing the flow of his chakra to hopefully buy him some time. Shinji seemed to have taken the bait as he charge at Cerino who ran to meet him. They soon engaged in a fast paced Taijutsu.

Seeing an opening soon after the fight began he seized it. His doujutsu flaring to life he began his attack. "**Chakra Break: Heavenly Rain!**" He then began to close all of Shinji's tenkutsu much like Hinata only with a different style and movements. After landing what appeared to be the final blow he palmed Shinji in the chest and Shinji went flying back from the wave of chakra that was released.

Shinji quickly picked himself up expecting for Cerino to press his attack. But he was surprised and relieved when it seemed that Cerino was in some kind of pain and he began to focus on the curse seal on his neck.

Cerino was trying to slow his flow of chakra back down but the damage was done. He could feel the burning intensify and he knew what was coming. To the surprise and worry of many Cerino began coughing up large amounts of blood into his gloved hand, and soon after many darkened lines began to appear from underneath Cerino's cloak and began to stretch up his neck and branch out across his face and soon he began shedding tears of blood!

"H-Hinata what's happening to him?!" Kushina asked.

Activating her Byakugan she soon gasped and uttered. "My God…"

"Well what is it?" Naruto said from beside her.

"H-His chakra coils…they seem to be tearing!"

"What!?" Kushina asked shocked.

"His coils are being torn apart!" Hinata said still observing his chakra system to the horror of many.

"Kushina I would advise you to pull out your student! If what Hinata says is true then he could die!" Kakashi said shakily.

Kushina didn't answer but instead brought her attention back to Cerino. Cerino regained his bearing and was able to deactivate his Go-Ruden-Manako. Yanking back the sleeve of his cloak he revealed that similar purple lines were running up his arm. Soon people began to realize that those purple lines were his chakra coils! Ripping off both of his gloves he saw that his hands were the same.

Up in the stands Yugito had to suppress the urge to rush to his aide but she calmed herself. '_He can take care of himself you know that._'

"Yugito isn't that your housemate?" Asked Yugito's friend and squad leader Yugao Uzuki.

"Y-yeah."

Back to the arena Cerino's brain was working a mile a minute. '_Damnit! This is bad. I can't think of a way out of this. I guess I'm going to have to end this quickly!_' He though as he got ready to charge at the now chakra less Shinji. But just as he was about to move he paused in mid step as a wave a malicious chakra rippled off of Shinji. And soon enough marking began to spread like fire across his skin and a purple chakra began to form around him. '_No. He's got the curse mark…I don't think I can beat him like this without…no I can't…not yet…_' As the Shinji seemed to be preparing to attack Cerino made his decision. '_I guess I'll have too…hopefully my team won't be to angry at me, but my reasons are justified._'

Up in the stands the jounin and ANBU were ready to jump in at the first sight of the curse seal…they were just waiting for the Hokage's signal. Sarutobi was looking to Cerino waiting to see what his decision was. _'Jiraiya and I told you Cerino that it would be best to tell your team about your burden. But I guess even you have your insecurities. Now what will you do?_' Cerino looked up at the Hokage and caught his eyes. He gave him and Jiraiya a small sad smile blood still running down his chin. It was his way of saying 'you were right, and I'm sorry it's come to this.'

Sarutobi nodded before giving his ninja the 'stand down' signal. '_Is he crazy! He's going to get Cerino killed!_' Kushina was practically screaming until her mind and body went numb as a familiar wave of power swept over her. Turning back to the fight all eyes were on Cerino and even Shinji had paused in mid step at the feeling. Cerino's eyes were closed and a look of concentration was on his face.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and his blood red eyes seemed to be glowing as a familial red chakra began to form around him. '_H-he's a…_' "Jinchuuriki." Kushina thought the last word slipping past her lips falling on deaf ears round her.

Naruto was simply starring in shock. '_H-he's just like me._'

As the red chakra began to seep out of him people noticed Cerino canines began to lengthen even further, his nails began to form into claws, and his facial features took on a more feral look, but he remained standing upright not crouching down like Naruto would. But unlike when Naruto would experiment with Yumi's chakra this chakra didn't feel untamed and unbridled. No this chakra was focused and controlled. While it didn't feel as malicious due to it being under control it made the ninja that much more wary. If he could control it to this degree then there is no telling what he could do. His chakra coils were still visible but not as defined as before and the bleeding had stopped

Beside him Sarutobi saw Danzo starring in amazement and awe and he could practically see the little cogs turning in his head. '_Don't even try it Danzo it'll be your undoing._' Seeing that this was going to get messy Sarutobi and Jiraiya stepped forward and with a signal they along with the ANBU erected a chakra barrier to protect the stands.

As Kushina's mind rebooted and she began to file all this new information away. Things began to make since! '_The secrecy, the preference to work alone it all makes since now! …He thought we would reject him._'

"**Ifrit-sensei! No not you too!"** Yumi shouted in Naruto's head in realization. (Yes the Ifrit from Final Fantasy. More on that later though.)

"What's wrong Yumi?" Naruto said back thought the link.

"**Cerino's the container of my sensei…" **Yumi answered back shocking Naruto.

Shinji seemed to have gotten over his shock and continued his charge. Cerino saw this and rushed to meet him. They met in a fierce Taijutsu fight that seemed to be even as they both fought to gain an advantage over the other. Shinji tried a sweep kick only for Cerino to jump over it and with a twist tried to kick him in the head only for Shinji to block it and grabbing his leg tossed Cerino at the wall above the entrance.

Flipping in midair Cerino landed on his feet against the wall and reversing the momentum from his landing he leapt straight at Shinji. Mid flight he began spinning in a cyclone just like Kiba's '**Tsuuga**'. Shinji quickly jumped out of the way and Cerino went flying by him. Landing Cerino skidded and span to kill all the momentum and not missing a step rushed at Shinji.

Leaping in the air Cerino spun and gave a powerful kick that was blocked by Shinji, but twisting his body again Cerino delivered a strong punch over Shinji's raised arms right on top of his head. Landing he next brought his left hand up and slashed Shinji across his chest leaving four deep cuts. All this time Cerino had an angry grimace on his face, and that combined with his scars made him look even more feral.

Shinji seeing he was at a disadvantage now leapt back and began flashing through hand signs. "**Earth Style: Rock Burial Jutsu!**" He said in a deeper voice. This time the rockslide was much stronger and some rather large rocks were tossed into the air as the rockslide roared toward the demonized Cerino.

Cerino didn't seem worried as he ran toward the rockslide head on leaping into the air headfirst he twirled and he sailed between two boulders just before the slammed together. Once on the other side he increased his speed into another '**Tsuuga**' that Shinji wasn't able to dodge. Cerino slammed into Shinji and somehow turned skywards pushing Shinji with him.

Shinji's shirt was all but destroyed and his chest was covered in slashes. Once Cerino stopped spinning he brought both his legs up and kicked off Shinji's chest separating them. They both straightened themselves out in mid air and began falling back to the arena floor.

Cerino's face returned back to calm and collected whereas Shinji had a soundless snarl on his face. They both landed and seemed to be examining the other almost like daring the other to make the first move.

To the surprise of everyone Shinji let out a low guttural laugh. **"It would seem that we are not so different you and I. We both desired and sought after power! While you achieved it from within I soon after defecting from The Land of Earth sought a stronger and more respectable man to pledge my allegiance to.** **The means are different but our ends are the same. We both desire total and unquestionable power! Now lets see who is stronger!"** He said as even more tainted chakra began to seep out of him.

Cerino gave off what sounded like a laugh but came out a bark. **"We are nothing a like!"** He said in a deeper more feral tone of voice. **"You sought after power but you only got an eternal slavery to a pedophiliac psychopath! But I…"** He lifted his clawed hands and stared at them. **" I promised myself I would never use this power for personal gain"** Cerino finished with a growl.

Shinji seemed amused by Cerino's words. **"Ah so you use your power to help others. Others who scorn and hate you because you are different. Fool such power should only be used to destroy or make them kneel before you! Such a waste of power to squander it off for such a feeble cause.**

"**Keh. Believe what you will but I swear this: Even if it takes my dying breath I will kill you!" **Cerino said releasing more demonic chakra.

"**Fine! Have it your way! I'd like to see you try!"** Shinji said before his body began to contort as he activated Stage 2 of his curse seal. His skin turned red and he shot up to about 8 feet tall. His muscle bulged and contorted and they grew to match his new height. His brown hair seemed to disappear from his scalp as his head grew. The remains of his shirt ripped off along with most of his pants until they resembled a pair of raggedy shorts. The ground next to him seemed to distort as a pillar of earth rose up and he grabbed it and ripped what appeared to be a giant mace from it. **"I WILL SHOW YOU MY TRUE POWER!" **He shouted brandishing the crude weapon.

Cerino stood there watching the transformation with a look of what resembled disgust on his face. **"If you are going to show me your true power than its only fair I show you mine."** He said attracting the attention of many.

Cerino's chakra coils slowly began to disappear as light blue patches of chakra started popping up mixed in with the red. Cerino's chakra's seemed to be molding and forming together slowly and the ground itself shook as whatever Cerino seemed to be doing was summoning a lot of power. The two opposing chakra's began to mold and combine slowly and some of the chakra turned purple, and quite suddenly an explosion rocked the stadium and the area around Cerino was engulfed in dust.

Everyone was watching in anticipation for what was going to come out of the smoke. Everyone froze as a wave of power that quite easily dwarfed the one Cerino let off early swept through the stadium. Suddenly as if from an invisible gust of wind the dust was swept away and there stood Cerino in a small crater surrounded by an aura of chakra.

"But wait that chakra's…" Kiba began noticing what everyone else had.

"Golden." Hinata finished.

Cerino was surrounded by an aura of golden chakra the same size as his chakra before to transformation. Then another wave of power swept over the area as his chakra suddenly grew easily match the size of Shinji's tainted chakra.

That's when Kushina felt it…she couldn't quite describe it. '_It feels invigorating…I-I feel like I can do anything!_' At that Kushina actually let off a laugh and off to the side Kushina barely heard Gai scream something about Cerino's 'Flames of Youth burning brighter than ever'. '_It feels like…whatever this chakra is. Its actually feels like its empowering me. Making me more confident!_' Kushina finally summarized the best she could.

Looking around she could see the others felt the same way. Looking back to the fight she watched as Cerino easily leaped from the middle of the crater, over Shinji, and to solid ground behind him. She then noticed that he had once again changed. He took on a much more human look. He didn't look nearly as feral as before, but he still held several demonic features.

His eyes were still blood red and slitted and he had golden, blue, and red streaks in his hair. His hands didn't have claws any more and his face still didn't look like it used to. It wasn't as animalistic as before but it still held some of the feral features just not a defined. All in all he looked like a mix between his human and demonized forms minus the highlights.

Cerino arched his back and many loud popping sounds could be heard as Cerino let out a groan as he flexed his muscles. "It's been forever since I've felt this…ALIVE!" He shouted at the end flaring his chakra. His voice sounded the same as it did before the prelims.

While the others got a moral boost from the chakra Shinji and a select others felt a coming dread and for the first time Shinji felt doubt, but he quickly squashed that not willing to show weakness.

Popping his neck Cerino once again turned his gaze back to his opponent. "Your move." He said mockingly with a grin.

"**Impressive light show but I still won't help you. Now prepare for your death Cerino Delgada! Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!"** Shinji shout as he went through hand signs with his over grown hands and a dragon much bigger than before roared towards Cerino.

As the dragon charged toward him Cerino didn't seem worried at all even as the dragon was bearing right down on top of him. The dragon moved to swallow Cerino whole but just before it reached him Cerino seemed to faze out and appeared beside it sheathing his sword just as its jaws clamped down on the space occupied by him just seconds before. There was a pause before the dragon's head was sliced clean off and it dissipated.

"My turn." Cerino said boredly. Not even bother with hand signs as he called his jutsu. "**Fire Style: Dragons Breath Jutsu!**" He let loose a jet of golden flames from the palm of his hand right at Shinji.

After some fast hand seals he yelled. "**Earth Style Wall!**"

The flames slammed right into the wall and continued to do so for a couple more seconds before stopping revealing that the wall along with the floor was glowing cherry red.

Cerino undeterred by the wall rushed right at it and upon reaching it punched right through it not worrying about the flames. Shinji although surprised by the show of strength swung his giant mace at Cerino who simply ducked under it before delivering a vicious uppercut to Shinji's chin.

Landing Shinji flipped though a couple more hand signs. "**Earth Style: Rock Burial Jutsu!**" He announced his favorite jutsu and an enormous rockslide rolled towards Cerino.

Drawing his sword Cerino pointed his free hand to the ground. His eyes flashed golden and he fired a golden chakra bullet into the ground creating his own rockslide. Just before Shinji lost sight of Cerino he saw him spin in place before slashing at the air towards him.

The two attacks met and Shinji lost sight of him in the dust cloud. But a second later he saw the dust cloud get cut in half and it was only years of training the saved him and he ducked and the wind blade soared right over his slicing into the arms of the giant statue of the man doing the ram seal.

Shinji watched carefully as the dust settled only for Cerino to be nowhere in sight. A rumbling behind him caused him to turn around. Cerino was by the arms of the statue and in a show of brute strength ripped off the rest of the with a grunt tossed them at Shinji who was just barely able to get out of the way as they shattered on the arena floor.

"Such strength…inhuman." Kurenai said in awe.

Cerino once again disappeared and appeared in front of a still free-falling Shinji. His nails grew to claws and he swung them at Shinji who just barely was able to block them with his mace that was cut into five different segments.

"When are you going to realize it you fool? You can't beat me! Now for once be smart and surrender…if you value your life!" Cerino said as they landed.

Shinji was silent for a second staring at the now useless handle before throwing it away. **"Ah I see…it makes sense now. There is no way a human could ever be so strong or so fast! You're not even human at all are you! You're just a demon in disguise!"**

Cerino was silent for a second silently observing him before he sighed glancing at his hands as his claws retracted. "I said I would never use this power for personal gain…and I never have. But you are only half-right! I am no demon…but…I can't deny…that I am no longer human. I am what you would call a 'Hanyou' or a Half-Demon." This earned many shocked stares from the crowd.

"This…" He said as he raised his hand now clenched in a fist. "…In the words of someone that I met recently and I've had the unique pleasure of getting to know him. This…" As he seemed to swell slightly with pride. "…Is the price I paid to protect MY precious people!"

Naruto blinked in surprise as Cerino used his own nindo as an example. Naruto began listening closely as Cerino continued. "And not a day goes by that I EVER regret my choice. Rain or Shine, Day or Night, through Thick and Thin I have and will continue to use this power to protect my precious people. EVEN IF IT TAKES MY DYING BREATH I WILL USE THIS POWER TO PROTECT MY FAMILY!" He exclaimed flaring his chakra even more at the end.

Kushina and every one else was staring awe struck as his golden chakra once again became tangible and spread growing and growing until it reached the chakra barrier. The ANBU tensed expecting it to push against the barrier but were surprised when it stopped just before it.

"**Fool!"** Shinji said spitting on the ground. **"I grow tired of you now lets finish this once and for all!" **He said slamming his fist into the ground as the earth gathered around his entire arm forming a cocoon and black seals spread along it. **"Fingers of the Mountain!" **Shinji said waiting for Cerino to announce his move.

Holding his right arm aloft Cerino's chakra began to gather there until his vary arm was set ablaze with golden flames. The flames took the shape of a monstrous arm with claws each about a foot in length at the endof each finger. (Think Ifrits arm from Final Fantasy 8) "**Pyro Tsume!**"

There was a silent wait as the opponents stared each other down. Then as if by some signal they both charged each other there respective attacks cocked back ready to kill the other. Shinji let out a battle cry as Cerino remained silent, cool, and calculative.

They each charged the other neither slowing nor changing course. When they got within range is when Shinji thrust his attack forward. But in a flash Cerino's attack canceled and instead with his left hand he reached forward and shoved Shinji's attack to the side and thrust his now clawed hand forward. What happened next and was hidden as Shinji's earth encased arm glowed before blowing up.

Everyone waited silently waiting for the dust to settle. Soon two silhouettes could be seen and with a final gust they finally saw the out come. Shinji was impaled on Cerino's arm and his right arm appeared to have been blown off from the explosion. '_A self sacrifice technique…he must have been desperate._' Kushina thought as she continued to watch.

Shinji as some point had returned to normal and now had a shocked look on his face. '_Poor fool probably didn't even know what happened._' Kakashi summarized from experience.

Cerino's left hand was charred and blacked but before their vary eyes the skin began to peel off and be replaced by new untouched flesh. Cerino grimace as he placed his left hand on what remained of his opponents should, and with a pull and a twist of the arm he retched his arm from the corpse with a squelch. Making several people almost lose their lunch or did in Sakura's.

Looking at his blood covered arm several people expected him to lick off the blood or something else, but instead he reached into his cloak and pulled out a bottle of water. After screwing off the cap his proceeded to rinse off the blood off of his arm quietly. His chakra completely gone and suppressed.

Sarutobi had long since removed the barrier and glancing at the proctor he audibly cleared his throat. With a start Hayate returned back to from his own little world before announcing the victor. "W-winner Cerino Delgada." There was no shouts or clapping as the audience had been stunned into silence and Cerino simply continued to clean his arm.

Finally getting all the blood off he tossed the empty bottle away before turning to the Hokage. With a nod Sarutobi gave him an obvious gesture meaning 'get out of here I'll take care of this.' With a nod Cerino turned around and began to walk towards the exit.

Sarutobi was about to say something before Danzo at his side shouted "ANBU SEIZE HIM!"

Yugao was about to follow said command before a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Turning she was about to say something until the Hokage shouted. "HALT!" with a nod of thanks Yugao turned to see some of the other ANBU were already in the arena when the Hokage had given the command, and Cerino had stopped in ready for an attack from any direction.

But someone had a better idea. Sasuke who was still charging gave a battle cry Sharingan blazing as he moved to punch Cerino. But the moment he got within range Cerino had grabbed him by his face and lifted him off the ground like a doll. Mikoto moved to help her son but was held back by Jiraiya. "This is a lesson he needs to learn alone." He whispered into her ear to calm her down. It worked as the relaxed and Jiraiya released her.

"LET HIM GO YOU DEMON!" Sakura yelled from her spot in the stands but was quickly silenced not only by the glare he sent her way, but also from the killer intent radiating off of many of the ninja around her.

Sasuke was gripping at Cerino's wrist and was trying to kick him but to no avail. "Sasuke…" Cerino growled getting his attention and he held still. "…You chose the wrong time and place to play hero. I'm in a bad mood and I think I a going to call in a debt you owe me!" Sarutobi looked shocked and the shinobi council watched with interest.

"Cerino think about this. I know your angry but you might regret this later!" Sarutobi tried to reason with the half-demon.

"No I won't." Cerino replied. "Sasuke…you and your clan has long since stained the name of the Delgada clan with your arrogance and your pride. You don't know the meaning of hard work and labor. And not only that but you have forsaken your own mother for the path of an avenger thinking its the right path, but in reality it's the path of a fool. The only Uchiha I find worth of the Sharingan and my clan's power is your brother. Although a missing-nin at least he didn't abuse his bloodline and his lineage. So in penance for this I will take away what you cherish the most!" A burst of blue chakra propelled Sasuke back and he slammed into the wall clutching his face.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Sasuke yelled as he began to shed tears of blood as he tried to activate his Sharingan.

"I have sealed away your Sharingan forever. Until a time when I see you fit for it!" Cerino said. "Not only that but you can't pass it on to your children. The Uchiha clan will cease to exist until a time I see fit."

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Sasuke shouted back furiously.

"The Sharingan originated from my clan that gives me right over your clan and its bloodline, and seeing as this is a clan matter your council can't do anything about. Now I am not without mercy! Should a time come when you prove yourself worth of it I will restore your Bloodline. Until then you will have to live and learn like normal shinobi do."

Cerino finished turned the Sarutobi for orders. "Cerino…go just go. I will take care of everything here. Meet me later and we shall discuss this in length."

Cerino nodded before turning away and with a wave of his hand what appeared to be a portal of darkness appeared before him. (Think of Organization XIII's form of entrance/exit from Kingdom Hearts)

Just as he was about to step into the portal he paused and glanced as Team 7. They stood their staring back at him unsure how to react. Cerino gave a nod before stepping inside the portal. The portal dissipated a second later and there was no trace of Cerino Delgada.

Kushina glanced at Sarutobi only to see him staring at her. Knowing what was coming he simply just gestured to were Cerino once stood and nodding. The message was 'ask him yourself he will answer your questions.'

As the other genin received their opponents for the Finals they left many of the Konoha genin thinking about their newest member.

Kushina was walking with her Team and as one all three of them looked at her with determined looks and Tsume and Hana soon joined them. Yugito had simply disappeared. They walked off knowing they were going to have a long discussion about their next course of action concerning one Cerino Delgada.

**-End-**

**Whew. Sorry that had to be that long but as mention above I was going to cut it in half but decided not to. As mentioned in the authors note in the beginning I am going to be taking your opinions on plot ideas, but they have to be set AFTER the chunnin exams for I already have the plot set that far. But after that is fair game. So tell me…what do you think of Cerino being a half-demon? It was difficult keeping it hidden from you cause I was scarred I would unknowingly let it slip or something. Hope you're satisfied with the outcome and most of your questions or at least some of them will be answered. **

**So until next time:**

**Ja Ne from Cerino the Ultimate Ninja! **


	5. Cerino's Past part 1

**Hey you all…well I can't really make an excuse this time. It's just that I haven't really been motivated to type at all recently. But since Lucario is officially completed I figured I'd type this chapter and start a new story so hopefully I will have that up in a few weeks but I am not promising anything. Well anyway it's time to start the story again and just a heads up but some more questions are going to be answered so keep a look out.**

**Oh and these past months have not been unproductive! I've been checking and editing some things in previous chapters. I also changed a few things so if you feel like it you can go back and read those. There not changes to the plot just small things that I felt could be better so anyway I'm rambling on with the story!**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Demonic Speech/Jutsu"**

'_**Demonic Thoughts'**_

**Demonic Requiem**

**Chapter 5: Cerino's Past pt.1**

Team 7 plus Tsume and Hana were walking through Konoha at a leisurely pace. It's been a week since the prelims and they had decided they had waited long enough. They were silently heading toward the Delgada compound and were going to see if they could get Cerino to talk to them. They had seen neither hide nor hair of him since the prelims and they were determined to get some answers.

When they reached the gate they paused. Of course Cerino had synced them into the wards during the time before the prelims but had he removed them? Figuring the best way to figure out was by trying Kushina raised her hand and sent a chakra burst into the gate. To their mild surprise the lock clicked and the gate opened.

Walking across the grounds they kept a lookout for any sign of their friend. Upon reaching the door Kushina opted to knock instead of just barging in unannounced. They waited for about a minute before the door was flung open.

But instead of Cerino standing there it was Yugito. But she looked different. Her ears were pointed like Cerino's and she now had purple highlights in her hair. And her eye's while retaining the same color were slitted also. She was carrying a large tub of warm water and her cheek had some blood smeared on it. "Oh thank god you're here Hana!" She said before shoving the tub into Naruto's arms who surprising caught it without spilling anything. Grabbing some towels from the stand beside the door she turned to leave. "Come on there isn't much time."

Catching on the others quickly followed her Hinata taking care to close the door. "What's happened?" Hana asked.

"Kirara went into labor late last night and is about to ready to give birth!" Yugito asked leading them through the halls. Upon hearing that Hana began hurrying also with the others in tow Kiba helping Naruto to balance the tub.

They exited into the garden were they could see three shapes by the tree in the center. When they got closer they saw Kirara lying on her side with Fenrir kneeling by her head offering comfort while Cerino stroked her stomach to comfort her. When they got their Hana immediately took over with the delivery.

Kirara was a beautiful wolf about the same size as Fenrir only with a chiefly brown coat with a multitude of colors mixed in. Red, pink, and blond were the other colors mixed in. The group had seen her before hanging around the gardens preparing to become a mother. Cerino looked surprised at their appearance but wasn't complaining.

The delivery went well seeing as Hana had arrived just in time to help Kirara through the worst of it and when it was all over four adorable pups were drinking their mother's milk and they were starting their new lives. "Oh Fenrir their beautiful!" Kirara said tiredly and she gazed transfixed at her new pups.

"I…I can't believe it…I'm a father!" Fenrir said knelling beside her staring at them like they were the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

Cerino was smiling beside him before his face went blank as he glanced at the group. With a nod towards the main building he moved to lead the way. Fenrir seemed torn between staying and going with his familiar but Cerino placed a hand on his shoulder giving him a gentle smile telling him to stay with his family.

Fenrir couldn't say no and curled up around his mate and watched over his new family. Hana had to nearly be dragged from the new family as she said she wanted to check up on the pups, but Tsume simply said. "Nature has already dealt with that in the form of loving parents and a mothers milk!" She said as Hana opted to go with them.

The entered the building and made their way to the living room. Everyone seated themselves while Cerino opted to stand leaning against the wall opposite from them while Yugito took the armchair nearest to him. It was silent for several minutes, as Cerino seemed to be collecting his thoughts, and Naruto and the others glanced between each other trying to decide how to pose the question they came to ask.

"I'm sorry." Cerino broke the silence. "I know I should have told you about my 'tenant' months ago but you must understand that I've never told any before and I didn't know how to explain it. And to tell the truth…I was afraid about how you'd react."

"Cerino…after all this time and you still didn't trust us?" Hinata said sounding hurt.

"How long did it take Naruto to tell you?" Cerino shot back before flinching realizing what he had just said.

"You knew?" Naruto said surprised before he got angry. "Sarutobi told you!"

"No! I figured it out on my own the glares in the street, the ungodly stamina, and huge amount of chakra. You reminded me so much of myself in these aspects and I eventually put two and two together."

"Even after you figured it out you still didn't trust us Cerino?" Kushina said. "We could've helped you."

"It's like I said I've never had to tell anyone before."

"But surely you had tell someone back in Shadow. Especially after…you know." Kiba said.

"I've never had to. When my…'partner' was sealed in me word spread to quickly before our Kage could stop it. While you grew up with peers who were oblivious I grew up with peers who knew about my burden and treated me like some kind of monster. They shunned me like I was some kind of plague. But through it all I still found friends." Cerino paused and after a second he chuckled. "But even that aside I still somehow acquired a group of fan girls. I always thought it was stupid. If I gained anything through that experience it was knowing how my true friends were and knowing who was just looking for some kind of personal gain."

"But why didn't you tell us." Kushina repeated. "If you knew about the Kyuubi why didn't you tell us about your own burden! Goddamn it Cerino! We could have helped you!"

"Because I've taken it a step further!" Cerino said glaring. "I not only hold a demon a BECAME a demon to defend those I cared about. I didn't know how you would react. I couldn't let my self tell you I was a Jinchuuriki without telling you I was also a Half-Demon, and I didn't know how you would take it." Cerino said before he leaned more heavily against the wall. He seemed to be deflating on the spot. "You guys were some of the best friends I've ever had outside of Shadow and I did not want to risk it."

There was a long pause after that as everyone began to mull everything over in their minds. "How did they react?" Kushina finally asked gaining everyone's attention. "How did your friends back in Shadow react when they learned what you did to protect them?"

"They didn't care." Cerino said with a smile. "If anything it brought us closer. They were just shocked that I would go to such lengths to protect them."

"And I take it you're in the same boat?" Hana asked looking at Yugito new appearance.

"Yes." Yugito said finding the floor very interesting. "Cerino found me in Kumo and he instantly knew what I carried. He was the first friend I've ever had and the first person other than the Kage to ever stand up for me. When he left he offered me asylum in Kuro I was sorely tempted, but I couldn't leave. The Kage had been to kind to me and I couldn't leave him."

"And are you…well are you the same as Cerino." Tsume asked not quite knowing how to phrase it.

"Yes. I…I went through the change just after you guys got back from Wave. I wanted to be able to help during the upcoming troubles and that was the best way of going about it. Ever since then I haven't regretted it."

"Wait does that mean when we saw you when we came here to train that means you…" Hana began.

"Yes. I was weak after the change and Cerino had to take care of me."

"Which one do you guys hold?" Naruto asked. "Seeing as you guys know I hold the Kyuubi."

"I hold the Nibi. She's been the closest thing to a mother I've ever had." Yugito said.

"I hold Ifrit the Ten Tailed. He's been more of a father to me then anything." Cerino said surprising many.

"Yeah Kyuubi's told me about him." Naruto said scratching the back of his head. "Sorry I haven't told you guys it's just that. It's his burden to tell not mine."

"Why'd you do it?" Kushina asked after another minute of silence. "Why did you become a half-demon Cerino?"

"If you'll allow me I'll show you." Cerino said.

"How?" Hinata asked.

"An ability of my bloodline. It allows me to trap people in an unbreakable genjutsu. It's good for torture but it can have other purposes like this."

After they talked about it for a couple minutes they all agreed. "Ok now just relax and don't panic." Cerino said as his bloodline flared to life.

A blinding flash of light overtook them before they appeared to be standing on a small hill in a grassy field allowing them to see for miles in every direction. They were all standing in the middle of a crossroads of a dirt path. Off to the side was an oasis with a large tree beside. In the middle of the oasis was a small island with three tombstones on it. Around them was a never-ending grassland except off in the distance they could just make out the outlines of some mountain range. The sky overhead was overcast with some rays of sun peeking through. "Welcome to my mind." Cerino said beside them. "Sorry I had to bring you here before we could move on to the memory.

"This is your mind?" Naruto asked remembering how he changed his own mind from a sewer into a beautiful forest for Yumi.

"Well as the Yamanaka call it my 'mindscape' an expanse of land that reflect a persons personality. Of course I could change it but I kind of like it here. I sometimes meditate to come here. I find it relaxing." Cerino explained.

"Whose graves are those?" Hinata asked gazing and the tombstones.

"Those are my first teammates. I put them their so that I will never forget them nor the lesson's they taught me."

Another flash of light and they find themselves in a dense forest with five people racing through it. The first one had thick, shoulder length, bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes. He had sea-green eyes and two purple reverse-teardrop markings under each eye. He also had a slim build. "That's Axel." Cerino said pointing to him.

He then pointed to one of the girls on the team. She had blonde hair sleeked back to about neck length and had two stands styled into some sort of 'antennae' with green eyes. She had an hourglass figure and you could just tell she was going to become even more beautiful when she got older. "That's Larxene."

He next turned to the last girl on the team. She had waist-length platinum blonde hair in a traditional hairstyle. Her eyes were the same shade of green as Larxene's and she had the same build also. "That's Irene." Cerino finished.

"They are my new teammates and are now some of my closest friends. They all come from the same orphanage and are like siblings. As you can see Larxene and Irene look so much a like they sort of adopted each other as sisters. They were some of the few people who were able to see past the horrible rumors and actually got to know me."

Next came a man in his late 30's with black hair and brown eyes. "That's my new sensei. He was very outspoken about me joining his team and he hated me even more when his complaints went unnoticed."

And of course there was Cerino. He looked much younger, but he still had the same eyes and build. Two of the most striking differences were that he was much shorter and he didn't have the scars across his face.

"The mission that we were on was a simple delivery mission for a local business. But apparently some competitive company hired some missing-nin to intercept the documents and kill the carries as a message to our client."

The group entered a clearing and continued across it, but it was then that the views caught sight of the group's pursuers who were gaining fast on the genin team. Suddenly a gruff voice rang out of nowhere although no one seemed to take note of it except Cerino. "**Their gaining on you guys pup! Unless you guys do something they will overtake you before you get to the village!"**

Then Cerino's much younger voice replied even though his lips never moved. _'I know! …Ifrit you think I could go through the change now to buy them some time to escape do you?'_

"That's me and Ifrit discussing over our mental link. I decided to add it in so that you guys would understand better what was going on." The Cerino beside them elaborated.

"**That's suicide pup if you undergo the change now you will be killed surely. Unless…if you were to use my chakra to delay them you might be able to undergo the change with some energy left to fight. But the strain it will put on your body might be too much!**"

'_Don't' tell me the odd's just do it! I am not going to allow them to die like my last team._' The younger Cerino replied.

"…**Alright but it will take a few minutes can you hold out until them?**"

'_Well just have to wait and see eh?'_ Cerino replied while skidding to a halt prompting his team to do the same.

"Go go get back to the village GO!"

"What are you talking about man we can't just leave you!" Axel shouted angrily slipping into a loose stance.

"Your crazy if you think we're going to do that!" Larxene said as she pulled out a kunai.

"Damn straight." Irene said slipping into a fighting stance.

"I'll be fine just GO! …Please."

The jounin grabbed Axel's shoulder and began to move. "Come on if he want to die then just let him!" He said fiercely.

"Just go I'll be fine!" Cerino repeated.

"You better be or I'll bring back to life just to kill you myself. Got it memorized!" Axel said before they took off.

Cerino gave them a thumbs up and a smile before he turned to face their pursuers. _'How long do you think you'll need?'_ Cerino asked Ifrit as he slipped into a stance.

"**I don't know just remember to use no more than three tails! You need to be conscious for this to work!"**

'_Joy.'_ Cerino replied back sarcastically as the enemy ninja's broke though the tree line. From what the spectators could tell there were 12 enemies ranking from genin to jounin.

Once they entered the clearing they caught sight of Cerino and charged straight for him. Cerino remained unmoving as they raced for him. He didn't move a muscle until they were no more than 15 feet away from him. Then out of nowhere and explosion of youkai burst forth from Cerino pushing them back. Cerino began to take on a more primal look as his hair became more ragged and he crouched down like an animal as he grew fangs and claws.

The missing-nin looked confused at this new development and a few of them began to panic at the sheer killer intent leaking off Cerino. **"YOU WILL NOT GET PAST ME!!!" **The demonically charged Cerino shouted at them daring them to attack.

Shaking off their initial shock the more skilled ninja attacked. Cerino met them. Cerino threw the first punch by slashing at a chunnin with his newly acquired claws. The chunnin was just barely able to dodge receiving four angry slashes across his torso. A jounin went to stab him in the back of the head with a kunai but he was able to dodge gaining a cut under his ear, which healed almost instantly.

This continued for a couple of minutes but they were starting to attack in pairs to keep Cerino on the defensive. Three times Cerino nearly got overwhelmed and had to shove them back with another wave of youkai.

"**Shadow Kunai Jutsu!**" One of the jounin behind him shouted as he threw a kunai at Cerino. Not having enough time to dodge Cerino was barely able to cover his head before they began to dig into his back, arms, and legs. Once the barrage ended Cerino collapsed to his knees. _'N-no I can't be done…this can't be my limit…I still haven't given them enough time…no…no…no'_ **"I CAN'T BE DONE! NOT YET!!!"** Cerino shouted to the heavens as another burst of youkai issued from his body. The kunai still lodged in his body were also shoved out with the blast flying through the air at blinding speeds killing three of the ninjas and injuring two more.

But this burst of youkai stayed unlike the others, which dwindled, leaving Cerino surrounded in a aura of youkai. Slowly patches of blue chakra began to appear in the sea of red, as Cerino seemed to have gone rigid. Slowly the youkai and chakra began to mix until it formed a sickly purplish chakra that began to expand. The ninja seemed to have had enough of watching and charged before whatever was happening finished.

But as they neared their target an explosion of golden chakra burst forth and threw them back more forcefully then the youkai ever did. Once they landed and regaining their balance and saw that the purple aura Cerino had been surrounded by had turned golden and was continued to grow. Trying once again they charged and once again they were pushed back by and even bigger burst of energy. Deciding they couldn't advance they opted to watch.

Then slowly Cerino began to change. His hair began to gain red, blue, and golden highlights, the tips of his ears began to sharpen into points. Then a series of loud 'CRACKS' went through the clearing, as Cerino's bones seemed to be breaking and healing at their own accord. Cerino was baring his teeth as they began to shift and take on a more carnivorous shape. Then as soon as it began it ended leaving a panting Cerino in his place.

One of the chunnin saw his chance and charged at the apparently exhausted Cerino. Cerino glanced up at him through his bangs. But something strange was happening to the chunnin. He seemed to be moving in slow motion and everything seemed to appear in better perception. The chunnin never saw his end coming. In a split second Cerino had shoved his arm through his chest.

Retching it out of the now dead ninja he continued to move with blinding speed as he decapitated a jounin with his claws before they could react. He continued to dispose of his opponents in an equally precise matter until they seemed to have enough and the genin and the few remaining chunnin fled. Of the 12 that entered that clearing only 4 left.

The Cerino in the memory took off into the trees after his team before the memory faded. "I am moving the memory forward to when I caught up with my team. I'm sorry you had to see that." Cerino added seeing Naruto's, Hinata's, and Kiba's green faced. "Ifrit later told me that he took over my body towards the end because I nearly passed out and it was a few seconds before I was fully awake.

The memory faded back in with Cerino walking through the trees. The group began to hear voices up ahead. "You felt that chakra! He could be dead for all we know!" Larxene's voice rang through the forest.

"Good riddance then. Any way we better get moving it's only a matter of time before they pick up our trail again we better get moving." The Sensei's voice spat back.

"No! I'm going back to look for him he wouldn't leave any of us behind!" Axel shouted back furiously at their sensei.

"All you'll find is a corpse and several enemy ninja! So don't waste your life on that filth!"

"You've always hated him just because something was thrust upon him. He has feeling just like us and he's always put up with your shit! Would a real demon really put up with all the crap you've given him!" Irene retorted.

"Don't fathom the ways of a monster. Not that it matters he's dead now."

"You don't know that! That's it I'm going back to look for him who's with me?" Irene said.

"I am!"

"Me too!"

"Fine!" Their sensei shouted. "Go throw your lives away but I am not I'm going back to the village!"

"There's no need!" Cerino said as came through the last of the trees.

"Cerino!" Axel said already grinning before it was replaced by shock. "What happened to you?"

"A fight that's what happened." Cerino replied weakly as he collapsed only to be caught by both Irene and Larxene.

"Hey take it easy you've lost a lot of blood!" Irene said as she, with Larxene's help, lowered him to the ground. "Axel get the First Aid Kit out of my pack!" The red head rushed off only to return to a second later with the kit.

"What happened man you look…different." Axel said kneeling beside Larxene.

"Yeah what's with the highlights." Larxene asked.

Cerino sighed before answering. "I had to fuse my chakra with Ifrits to buy you guys the time to get away."

"You did what!" Irene said looking shocked.

"I fused our chakra's together. It's a process Ifrit and me have been discussing for a while. But it comes at a cost. To do so…it…it cost me my humanity." Irene gasped and Axel and Larxene looked shocked. "I'm sorry but it was the only way. I couldn't let anything happen to you. Not like my last team." Cerino went silent refusing to meet any of their gazes.

"Wow…you did that for us?" Irene asked looking amazed. Cerino only nodded. Next thing he knew he was in a bone-crushing hug courtesy of Irene. Cerino just looked shocked until Irene let him go. "What? You didn't think we'd hate you for something like that did you?"

Cerino gave a weak laugh before smiling. "Of course not."

"You better not have!" Axel said from the side.

"Yeah or we'd have to hurt you!" Larxene teased.

"Wait what happened to the missing-nin?" Axel asked after a few minutes of silence during which Irene was patching up Cerino's wounds to the best of her abilities.

"They ran off after I…took care of a few of them." Cerino answered.

Axel nodded before they sank back into a comfortable silence broken only by a silent hiss or curse from Cerino. "So…if you are no longer human then…what are you exactly?" Larxene asked.

Cerino stayed silent for a few minutes before answering. "I'm no longer human but I am not a demon so I guess…you could call me a half-demon because I guess I'm a mix of both."

"Why don't you just ask Ifrit?" Irene asked as she continued to treat the wounds on his back.

"I've tried but I think the merging messed with our connection or something. I'll meditate later and find out." Cerino said as his head lolling to the side.

"Hey Cerino! Stay with us for a little while longer okay?" Irene said shaking his shoulder gently.

Cerino nodded before he looked at Axel. "When do you think back-ups going to get here?"

"Well we sent out the message when they started chasing us so I guess another hour…two at most."

"Good cause I don't think I'll be able to move when they get here."

"Yeah and I wouldn't recommend it either. You could reopen one of these wounds. One of us will have to carry you." Larxene said helping Irene bandage his torso.

"Like I'm even touching that monster." The Sensei who had been silent up until then growled angrily.

"No ones asking you! I'll carry him!" Axel growled fiercely.

"Fine! Carry the Demon! But I'm not slowing down for a good for nothing…" The Jounin was cut off as a black blur came from the tree line and slammed him against a tree effectively knocking him out.

"That 'demon' your insulting is my son!" The new arrival said as she glared at the now unconscious jounin. Turning to the group she smiling. "Hope I'm not to late."

"Hey mom." Cerino said weakly from the ground.

In an instant Rei Delgada was beside her son. "Hey Cerino how you feeling?" She was a beautiful woman around Kushina's age. She had the same pure white hair as her son cut to about shoulder length, but her eyes were pure silver. She was wearing a cloak in the same style as Cerino's usual one.

"Like a million bucks." Cerino answered sarcastically smiling at his mother.

"Well let's get you out of here so we can get you checked up okay?" She said as she picked him up gingerly before setting him on her back piggyback style.

"Okay." Cerino replied.

"What about him?" Axel said gesturing back to their still unconscious sensei.

"Lets let the retrieval team find him shall we?" Rei answered with a grin.

The group nodded as Larxene replied. "I like your thinking!" The last images of the memory were of the group disappearing in the tree line. Another flash of light and they found themselves back in the living room.

"Wow." Was all Hana said.

"So what happened after that?" Hinata asked from her spot on the couch.

"Well we got back to the village okay. But as a side effect of doing the change under such circumstances I slipped into a month long coma shortly after that. Ifrit was right. The strain that method put on my body was almost too much. After the fight I was running off of pure adrenaline and will power." Cerino replied taking a seat in one of the armchairs finally relaxing. "Feel free to ask any questions you have."

"What happened to your sensei?" Naruto asked.

"He was fired from his job as a jounin sensei and removed as a ninja. He later attempted to go rogue but was caught and executed before he left Shadow. My mother stepped up and took his place as sensei. After that things were great and me and my friends each grew better as time passed."

"What was that chakra that you gave off during the change? It's not youkai it feels totally different." Kushina asked the question that had been bugging her since the prelims.

"That chakra is the result of me merging Ifrits and my chakra. It's a mixed of both human chakra and youkai. So in essence not only did I gain my own core of youkai, but I also gained that third type of chakra that is a mixture of the two. I call it 'Valor' chakra because of the feeling it gives my allies and myself."

"Yeah I was meaning to ask about that." Tsume said as she finally got into the conversation.

"Well even I don't fully understand it, but not only can I mold and wield valor chakra like my regular human chakra but it also subconsciously effects the people around me. People who I trust and are fighting with will get and instant boost and moral and spirit when I use it hence the name 'Valor'. But my enemies will feel a sudden sense of dread and despair. So not only is valor chakra good for practical uses it's also effective as a sort of psychological warfare too."

"What can it do?" Kiba asked clearly interested.

"Well I can mold it just like regular chakra for jutsu's. But one thing I noticed was that it is a lot more potent then chakra thus requiring less to use jutsu's. It took me awhile to get use to it but I eventually got it down and began working on chakra control with it.

But a side effect of it is that it's so potent that if I don't use if for an extended period of time it will begin to rebel against my other chakras and tear my coils. That is what happened during the prelims. I hadn't used it since our mission in wave. That night I stayed up all night on our way there remember. During the night I replaced my self with a shadow clone and snuck off so I could let off some of it to buy myself some time."

"Ah that brings up another question!" Kushina began. "How can you move so fast without getting tunnel vision? Back when you stabbed Zabuza's clone in the neck during his first attack and during the prelims you were moving at such speeds that even I couldn't follow."

At that Cerino laughed. "Nothing escapes you eh Kushina? Well let me tell you that my eyes aren't just for show! That is one of the reasons why I can move so fast. Most people like Gai and Lee have to train their eyes for years to be able to keep up with the intense speed they use. I've never had to. Ever since having Ifrit sealed inside of me I've had these eyes. They have helped me greatly during my life." Cerino answered with a smile.

"But why did your eyes change when Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed in him all he got were the birthmarks on his cheeks?" Tsume asked curiously.

Cerino's smile faded and took on a more somber attitude. "Well the man who sealed Ifrit in me was nowhere near the Fourths skill, and to save me from dying Ifrit had to make some changes to my body to help me survive. My eyes were one of them."

"Cerino…this might be a personal question and you don't have to answer but…why did you have Ifrit sealed inside you? No rumors were ever spread about Ifrit the Ten Tailed attacking Shadow?" Kushina asked gaining the attention of all even Yugito.

Cerino swallowed and seemed to be thinking on it. "No. No you deserve to know. The circumstances could not have been any different but the same person as Naruto sealing brought it upon me. My own father had Ifrit sealed inside me." Silence rained as Cerino seemed to compose himself and collect his thoughts. "While Naruto here had his burden given to him as a sign of trust and love. Mine was thrust upon me for one goal and only one goal. Power.

My father had courted my mother and married her for one reason. Power. They had a son before me but my fathers plan wasn't ready so he simply brainwashed my brother into believing in his dream and to hide it from my mother. But when I was born his plan was ready to be followed through. So on the night I was born he snuck into the nursery and kidnapped me and took me outside the village with our villages seal's master. Now Ifrit normally didn't leave his family and visit this realm no more than once a century so my father had to seize the chance that his arisen.

He had spent years pouring over document of his visits to discover his patterns and plan his move wisely. Now Ifrits visits were completely at random and spontaneous but my father discovered that he always inhabits the same cave during his visits. So on that night he and my older brother, who at the time was 4, kidnapped the seal's master, by threatening his family, and myself.

So they left and went to the cave, which my father had spent years searching for, and they entered. Now at first Ifrit was curious but once my father started talking Ifrit became hostile and would have killed him if he didn't threaten me with a kunai. Now Ifrit most likely could have still killed him before he knew it but he was too kind to risk it. So he let the sealing happen. Know the reason my father kidnapped the seal's master was because he knew the sealing would cost the sealer his life. So he simply had someone else do it. He was hoping to turn me into a weapon but thank whoever was watching over me that that never happened.

But what my father didn't anticipate was my mother feeling worried about me for some unknown reason. So even in her weakened state she placed a seal on me to tell her if I was in any danger. So when my father took me she immediately alerted my grandfather, who was my father's father, and he immediately dispatched as many ninja as could be spared to search for me seeing as I was the only person other than my mother and brother with my bloodline so the council didn't complain.

And even against his orders my mother went with them. They arrived just after the sealing was finished. Now my father didn't anticipate a fight so he was caught off guard. My mother was with the group that found him and was devastated. Using her as a distraction to keep the group talking he and my brother was able to escape. But during the brief struggle my mother was able to grab me before they could escape."

Cerino sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "While part of my fathers plan was spoiled he still managed to escape and I never saw nor heard anything about him ever again until a couple months ago." The group just looked shocked

"What happened?" Hinata asked after she got over it.

"It doesn't matter now." Cerino deflected. Silence rang again as everyone mulled the story over in their minds. "I'm sorry for never telling you, but it's a sore subject for me and I didn't want to risk your friendship nor trust."

"It's okay Cerino." Kushina said leaning over and patting his arm. "We understand."

"Where's Zabuza and Haku?" Naruto asked just realizing they hadn't seen them since they arrived.

"They were able to buy a house and moved out just before the Exams started. They've already stopped by. They are ok with me too so everything's fine. So who's facing who during the final exam?" Cerino asked. "Sarutobi only told me that I was facing Gaara."

"Well I'm facing Temari." Naruto began. "Ino is facing Shino. Shikimaru got seeded to face to winner of my round. Hinata is facing Kankuro. Kiba is facing Choji. And then there's you facing Gaara."

"Cool." Cerino said grinning.

"Seeing as we could all end up fighting each other we have decided to divide this month up into individual training." Kiba said grinning back.

"Alright." Cerino replied.

"Well I think we've kept Cerino long enough! His familiar just became a father so lets not keep him any longer!" Tsume was smiling ear to ear.

"Yeah I gotta check up on them. I'll see you guys at the exams!" Cerino said standing up and stretching.

"Alright. But remember Cerino if you need anything at all you can come to us for help." Kushina said also standing up as everyone else followed suit.

"You got it." Cerino replied grinning.

He saw them off the estate before heading back to the garden to great the newly made parents.

**-Council's Chamber 10:47 p.m. Two weeks later -**

Kushina…had no idea why she was even here. She and Tsume were sitting in the council chambers listening to the other members, chiefly the civilian council and Danzo, rant on and on about Cerino.

Now the others among the shinobi council members simply asked questions about Cerino. Some were not answered but most were by the Hokage, Tsume, Kushina, and surprisingly to most Hiashi Hyuuga. But the civilian council was going on and on about 'how the Hokage could have let that monster among us' and 'we should kill it now while it doesn't expect a thing'. And Danzo was predictably going on how we should 'gain leverage over him and make him a weapon'.

"Danzo how many times do I have to tell you? We are not making him a mindless puppet! He is a shinobi of the Leaf and we will neither harm nor threaten him!" Sarutobi repeated for the umpteenth time at Danzo's advances.

"You speak of him like he's human. Did you not hear him? He confessed to being a demon!" Danzo retorted.

"He's only half-demon, or are you also deaf along with crippled!" Tsume shot back at Danzo angrily. "He not only saved my sons life in wave, but also the children of half the people here!"

"I will not be insulted like this! What if he were to turn on us! If we don't do something now he could vary well do some serious damage!" Danzo retorted turning a deep shade a red.

"That's bullshit and you know it! If he were going to do something he would of done it a long time ago!" Kushina was getting tired of this. The rest of the shinobi council was silent although they defended him on several occasions. Kushina didn't see why they waited this long. It was a week before the final exam!

"Don't fathom the ways of a demon. Neither you nor I can understand why he hasn't acted. Now what we need to do is to get some type of control over him. Then we send him after our enemies!" The still red Danzo replied but on the inside he was smirking. He was a very good actor. What no one else knew was that he was purposefully dragging the meeting on so that the team of ROOT nin he sent to the compound could kidnap one Yugito Nii to use as a trump card in controlling the 'demon'.

"No! First we need him to restore Sasuke's Sharingan! That should be our first priority!" Haruna Haruno screeched.

"Haruno we've already cleared up that matter. It's a clan matter so you can't do anything about it. So stop humping the Uchiha's leg like some bitch in heat! Oh wait you are one!" Tsume grinned at putting the Haruno down. Haruna turned red and was about to screech again but was cut off.

"SILENCE!" Sarutobi shouted gaining the councils complete attention. "Cerino is one of my ninja meaning that he responds only to me! I will not have any of you threatening him. He has done more for this village than many of you have ever done. He is a valuable asset to the Leaf and I will not allow him to become a puppet of the council! Now this meeting is adjourned and…" The Hokage cut himself off as a black substance began to appear on the floor and continued to grow through the chamber until it stopped just short of the council seats lined up along the circular wall.

**-Delgada Estate: 2 minutes prior-**

The group of ROOT Nins Danzo had sent had just entered the compound to find it unguarded. The 20 shinobi slipped over the walls soundlessly and made for the main building. The door was unlocked also. They crept silently through the halls until they reached the living room where the group held their 'intervention' not two weeks prior.

Just as they were about to move on to the upstairs everything went dark. Now like when the light goes out, no like pitch dark like the shadows had come alive and swallowed them whole.

"I believe you're in the wrong house." A voice said behind the group, which whirled around only to find nothing. "Over here." The same voice said behind them yet again. Turning again they found their vision restored. And their in the doorway they were just about the enter through they found one VERY pissed off Cerino Delgada who was only in a pair of shorts and a wife beater.

"What do you think we should do with them?" A voice said behind and they found their target Yugito Nii, also dressed in her pajamas, standing there in the doorway blocking their exit except the windows.

"Well this is the proof the Hokage was looking for to incriminate Danzo. He's obviously to smart to have on of them keep the orders on them. They more than likely burned them. So we better keep at least one of them intact. My bet is the one in the weasel mask is their leader." Cerino replied.

Before any of the ROOT Nin could react Cerino's eyes flashed golden and their leader fell unconscious. "Hold no qualms about killing them because these cowards wouldn't show you the same courtesy." Cerino said as he prepared for the slaughter to come.

"Yeah I know now lets get this started!" Yugito said before they both blurred out of sight and all the ROOT Nin ever saw again was blood.

**-Council's Chamber present time-**

Out of the darkness flashed a golden streak of light and shot straight at Danzo. A spear of golden chakra lodged into the wall right beside his head. "Now tell me why a group of ROOT Nin, a group you were **ORDERED** to disband years ago, snuck their way inside **MY** home!" One royally pissed of Cerino Delgada said as the darkness faded revealing a gruesome sight.

He and Yugito were standing amongst what must have been at least 20 corpses. Oddly neither of them had a drop of blood on them. Each corpse bore slashes across their body and several were dismembered of some of their limbs. Most of the civilian council lost their dinner at the sight of the bodies. Danzo looked shocked and the shinobi council looked alarmed.

"YOU DEMON! You see Lord Hokage? He's obviously went out and slaughtered some of our ANBU!" Haruna screeched after wiping the vomit of her face.

"No. They do not have the Leaf symbol on their masks. They are not ours." Hiashi Hyuuga said taking a closer look at them.

"DANZO! What's the meaning of this! Not only did I order you to disband your little group of rebel's but they also planned to attack one of MY shinobi! Such crimes can only be awarded with death!" Sarutobi shouted standing up preparing to deliver the sentence.

"But Lord Hokage 'Cerino' here could have just as easily put those marks their himself and there is no evidence their that links them to me." Danzo said coolly. One thing he learned early on it was how to cover his tracks.

"Uh actually there is some evidence." Cerino said before he began to walk amongst the bodies. "Now where did we put him…AHA here he is!" Cerino said lifting up an unwounded shinobi who bore a weasel mask. "You see unlike some of you believe we are not just mindless killing machines. We decided to keep this little bastard here alive for questioning. Now we could send him to Ibiki but that could take days, weeks even. Or…if Inoichi Yamanaka here doesn't mind he could take a peek inside his mind and get us the answers in seconds." Cerino continued waving the unconscious ROOT Nin like he was nothing more than a rag doll.

"Inoichi do you have a problem with that?" Sarutobi asked as he glared at Danzo.

"No I do not, but he needs to be awake." Inoichi said jumping down, bringing his chair with him, unfazed by the bodies.

"Excuse the mess and just give me a second." Cerino said casually like he was inviting an unexpected guest into his home. He snapped his fingers in front of the ROOT Nins face who immediately jerked to life. Cerino quickly hit a point on the base of his neck with his fingers before holding him in front of Inoichi. "I've paralyzed him so there is not need to worry."

"Thank you Mr. Delgada." Inoichi said before flipping through to hand signs for his clan's jutsu. He then collapsed into the chair and there was nothing left to do but wait. Cerino unceremoniously dropped the ROOT Nin.

Everyone was silent as they waited for Inoichi to finish sifting through the shinobi's mind. While they were waiting Danzo was trying to come up with an escape plan. Sarutobi was glaring at him from across the chamber and he knew one wrong move would tip him off. But he didn't anticipate this! The demon having such backing as for most of the shinobi council to side with him!

If he didn't come up with a plan than he would be dead within the next several minutes. Good thing he always brought a pair of ROOT ninja with them because he would probably have to sacrifice them to make his escape. Yes! He would tell his ROOT Nin to assassinate the Hokage and while everyone was moving to defend the old fool he would make his escape!

Cerino summoned his sword from the seal on his arm preparing to spring to action at a moments notice. This action went unnoticed by the audience as they waited for Inoichi to tell them the truth.

On queue Inoichi blinked and rose from the chair. Swaying for a second getting used to his own body he blinked before glancing at the Hokage. "Cerino speaks the truth. Danzo sent him and the others to capture Yugito in hopes of gaining leverage over Cerino in order to get him to help over throw you." There were many surprised gasps from the civilian council and every shinobi in the room was glaring Danzo.

Danzo decided now was as good a time as any. "ROOT!" Immediately two of the ANBU in the room jumped to his side. "Kill this old fool!" He shouted pointing to the Hokage. As Danzo planned the shinobi council moved to defend the Hokage…but that's as far as his plan got.

As soon as they leaped at the Hokage twin jets of golden light leapt towards them and each were pinned to the wall by a spear of golden chakra on either side of Danzo. While Yugito took care of the ROOT Nin Cerino appeared in front of Danzo, kicked away his crutch, and threw him against the wall his sword at his neck his face twisted into and animalist snarl. "Nice try."

Danzo looked shocked and nearly passed out when the wave of killer intent hit him from every shinobi in the room. "What do you want done with this filth!" Cerino asked as he continued to keep Danzo pinned.

"Down here!" Inoichi shouted having not moved from his spot during the disarray. "Let me go through his mind before we deal with him!"

"Excellent thinking Inoichi!" The Hokage said resuming his seat.

"Yugito!" Cerino said tossing Danzo to her like a sack of potatoes. "You know what to do!"

Yugito caught him deftly and immediately began shocking him ignoring his screams of pain as she fried his nervous system. Once she was done she carried him to Inoichi. "There. Don't worry I just fried his nervous system. His mind still works he just won't be able to move ever again. So I guess you could call him a vegetable." Yugito said with a reassuring smile.

Inoichi nodded as she set him in the chair as Cerino brought another one for Inoichi. A few seconds later Inoichi was once again slumped down as he searched through Danzo's mind. Kushina and Tsume went down to Cerino and Yugito to talk.

"Never a dull moment with you around is there?" Kushina said with a grin.

"Yeah it's a blessing and a curse. No matter what I always turn up where all the action!" Cerino said returning the grin before taking a thoughtful stance. "Now let me guess what this meeting was about…"

"Don't! Please! We've had enough of it and I just want to drop the subject!" Tsume said with a sigh. "It's like listening to a broken record!"

"Alright. And by the way Yugito I see you've been practicing! I didn't know you could do the 'Valor Lance' yet!"

"Yeah well I've been practicing with my valor chakra and I must say you were right. After a while it starts to just come to you!" Yugito replied with a smile.

"So you've taken the shift rather well?" Kushina asked.

"Yes. It took me a while to get used to my own body after I got better, but let me tell you. While Cerino's methods might be a little odd and lets face it sadistic they definitely do work!"

"Hey more pain for you is more fun for me!" Cerino said grinning.

"Hey you remember what it was like when Ifrit put you through the grinder!" At that Cerino shuddered before grinning again.

"So you should be thanking me! Compared to what Ifrit put me through my methods a cake walk!"

Yugito laughed before glancing off to the side to see a familiar ANBU standing in the corner. Cerino followed her gaze and frowned before nudging her in that direction. "Go on. She at least deserves a chance." Yugito looked up him for a second before giving him a brief smile and taking off towards her.

Catching there confused looks Cerino decided to explain. "Yugao Uzuki. Yugito's best friend when she was in ANBU. She hasn't seen her since the prelims and has been afraid how she would react once the truth got out. After I spoke with you guys I told her she should at least give her a chance. She's been putting it off until now."

"You two are close aren't you?" Kushina asked.

"She's like my sister to me. We both hold burdens and the first time I saw her she reminded myself of me before…" Cerino's eyes glazed over and he seemed to space out.

"Before?" Tsume brought him out of his daydream.

"It doesn't matter now." Cerino said deflecting while shaking his head. Glancing over to Yugito he smiled as he saw her face go from worried to happy as she hugged her friend. "It looks like Yugito has found a friend that she can count on." He said with a smile and a nod to her. Yugito and Yugao, with permission from the Hokage, left the council chambers to go hang out.

As they left Kushina thought to herself. _'He's obviously still hiding things from us but at least he trusts us. Maybe after the exams are over he'll tell us more.' _(EPIC FORESHADOWING)

"Excuse me I need to go speak to the Hokage quickly." Cerino excused himself before going to speak to the Hokage before returning. "Well it seems my work is done so I think I'm going to head home. As you can obviously those ROOT Nin caught me napping!" Cerino said with a smile.

"Yeah. Goodnight Cerino and see you at the Final Exams!" Kushina replied.

"Goodnight and don't let the bed bugs bite!" Tsume said with a grin.

"Goodnight you two and tell Naruto and Kiba I said 'hi'." Cerino said before leaving.

**-End-**

**Well that's a wrap! Again sorry for the wait but like I said I kinda lost my motivation to type there for a while. So anyway next chapter in the 3 stage of the Chunnin Exams and here's a little hint. There is going to be a MAJOR plot twist and I can't wait to type it! After that no more deception. All the secrets will be out and it will be just straight up action. And again if any of you have any ideas for the plot PLEASE tell me and I'll take all of the into consideration into how I would make them work. And please read and review…that might help me get more motivated to type.**

**So Until Next Time**

**Cerino the Ultimate Ninja signing out!**


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